Ties That Bond
by Coldbee
Summary: Sequel to "The World of an Amazon"  Diana finally understands how truly dark Bruce's past is, while her own enemies do everything they can to get to her through him.
1. The Past and Present

**A/N: **Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I finally managed to write this up, sorry for the delay. Thanks again for all of the support, I really appreciate it.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

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><p><strong>The Past and Present<strong>

"_Different…_" Diana watched Batgirl as they were on a stakeout with Batman and Robin. Dressed completely in black, face fully covered with symbolic stitches outlining where the opening for her mouth would be, a yellow outline of the bat symbol, and a cape that touched the floor. The yellow boots and gloves were replaced with black ones while the opening for the soft free flowing hair was no longer there. The movements and attitude were completely different as well… Cassandra Cain/Wayne, the new adoptive daughter of Bruce and Diana Wayne. The new Batgirl. This new Batgirl didn't resemble the original Batgirl at all. Barbra had the smile to lift the mood when things went bad. She had the technological know-how to find things that even Bruce couldn't see. Diana swore that Barbra was Bruce's partner of choice because she was the only one who possessed a skill is arguably better than his. Not to mention she worked with him just as much as Tim did – if not more. Bruce always counted on her to find pieces of information when he didn't have time to look or couldn't dig up.

But now Cassandra is Batgirl. She wasn't what Diana had in mind for an adopted daughter, but with her darkened mentality, she fitted perfectly within the batclan. Diana cared and watched out for Cassandra as she did with everyone else in the family, but what made it awkward in the beginning was just that Cassandra never spoke. Diana had a difficult time getting to know her because she didn't talk at all and mainly kept to herself. Cassandra was the least open person in the family, but over time Diana understood her way of thinking… to a certain extent. Diana easily embraced Cassandra's role as Batgirl because both Bruce and Barbra trusted her, and earning Bruce's trust was all one needed to do to be accepted by everyone else in the family. As the daughter of Lady Shiva, Cassandra grew up mastering the skills to become one of the world's greatest assassins. Her fighting ability was easily superior to Barbra's as she could take on both Dick and Tim at the same time without breaking a sweat. Cassandra was always on the mark, never missing a step, always doing what Batman told her without question. She was extremely loyal and always backed him up when he needed it. Cassandra's seriousness and deadly techniques also kept Tim in check during battles. Not that Tim messed around as much anymore – especially after that fateful night.

Nothing was the same after it happened. Just before both Diana and Bruce came back from their honeymoon two years ago, Barbra as herself was attacked by The Joker. He wanted to see if he could get her father, Commissioner Gordon, to go insane 'just for the fun of it'. The Joker shot Barbra through her spinal cord, paralyzing her from the waist down. Everyone took it hard. Tim became less witty and sarcastic when engaging enemies throughout the streets. If Diana didn't know any better, she would have thought that Tim was slowly developing Bruce's tendency to brood. He became extremely serious and almost obsessive in his own detective work to help Bruce figure things out faster. Tim was definitely giving Bruce a run for his money for the title of the World's Greatest Detective.

Dick was devastated, but did everything he could to take care of Barbra. He was the main reason why she recovered from her psychological trauma and depression. He even proposed to her and they planned to marry in a few months. He encouraged her to continue the fight and still be a part of the batclan. He helped her train her upper body to be strong enough to fight while still in the wheelchair, and perfecting her bat-a-rang accuracy to Bruce's level. With her technological intellect, she easily became the clan's base of operations with everything running through her. Barbra even organized a special team called 'The Birds of Prey' which included both The Huntress and The Black Canary. Batman easily approved the team's formation as it gave him a squad to help him do things his way instead of The Justice League's way.

Bruce took Barbra's incident the hardest. He blamed himself for what happened to her. No matter what anyone said or told him otherwise, Bruce believed he failed her. Batman was beyond pissed off, which scared the crap out of everyone. The night he found The Joker, Diana thought he was actually going to kill him. Batman had beaten The Joker like never before, practically breaking every single bone in his body while almost leaving him for dead. It took everything Diana had to bring Bruce out of his heavily brooding state afterwards. Diana had never seen the full extent of his brooding before as it finally made sense to her. Why he surrounds himself in nothing but darkness. Why he continues his brutal and intimidating ways. Gotham was like no other city. The villains here didn't scheme to take over the world or get rich quickly. No… they schemed to cause pain and chaos. They did it for the pure joy of watching the world burn. Batman was right when he told her a long time ago that she wasn't ready to see Gotham in its truest state. If she saw it then, she would have hated man's world and never come back.

No matter how much she tried to make him happy, to bring light into his life, something always happened to keep Bruce living in nothing but darkness and despair. He was right. As always… but she loved him, still loves him, and will always love him anyways. Even if it meant living in constant darkness with him and continue to see the world at its worst – the way he sees it. Her perfect world lasted the length of their honeymoon as she realized that being with Batman meant sharing the curse of darkness with him, but living with him was worth every bit of pain and suffering the curse produced. Diana wouldn't trade their love for anything and had no regrets about any of the decisions she made to be with him. Bruce warned her that being around him will eventually corrupt and darken her. She is Wonder Woman, pure of heart, nothing but light, the symbol of truth, honor, and all that is good within the world. He is Batman, cold, cruel, unforgiving, and surrounded in the darkness of all that is wrong with the world. He was right… again… she had changed over the years as well. Fighting alongside him made her mentally tougher, finally understanding that the ideals of truth, honor and justice didn't apply most of the time in Gotham, if at all. But Diana believed that her influence in the trade off was well worth it as she gave him some of her light and hopes that one day the virtues she symbolizes will triumph over everything else. The influence that she had on him could barely be seen, but it was there. Only those closest to him could actually see his happier, softer, more caring side. She made him happy even if he didn't want to admit it. They completed each other and couldn't live without the other. For better or worse, depending on whose opinion one would ask for, his influence on her was easily seen. Diana dressed differently because of him. She now wore a deep dark red top with golden trimmings and straps, long skin tight black pants, and black low heeled boots with golden straps. While still very noticeable, the golden Wonder Woman insignia on her chest and her symbolic golden tiara were both thinner and smaller than before. Diana also replaced her silver bracelets with golden ones that tie on the inside and over her hands. Only her golden lasso and belt were exactly the way they originally were.

She never thought she'd wear such dark colors, but she wore them mainly because it helped keep her hidden within the shadows during their nightly patrols. Diana also liked the fact that they provided more protection for her skin from getting annoying cuts here and there during battles. Not to mention that covering most of her skin stopped the hooting and hollering she always received from just about every guy on the planet – or universe. Of course it was less of a problem once the news of her marriage to Batman went public. Being married to the most feared man in the world did have its benefits. Diana didn't want to admit it, but having the title of Batman's wife gave her more power than she ever thought possible. She always had the supreme strength to crush anyone, the ability to fly, the magical bracelets, the golden lasso, and had always been the second most powerful member in the league before Batman got his powers. But all of that combined didn't even come close to intimidating anyone compared to the terrifying power of the new glare she gained with her title. It was one thing to piss off Wonder Woman as everyone knew there were limitations to her wrath because of who she is and what she stands for. But now, with a simple glare, she could easily make anyone crap in their pants because of who her husband is and what he stands for. No one dared to irritate or annoy her now that she could get her husband to show up with a snap of her fingers. Diana realized that the power of intimidation was by far, the most powerful weapon that anyone could possibly possess.

Batman rarely used his new abilities that were given to him by the Gods. The local criminals in Gotham already believed he had powers to begin with anyways. Batman made it a priority to use his brain and fighting skills just as he did before to defeat the main villains like The Joker, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two Face, Mr. Freeze, and Catwoman… Diana hated her… the one woman she could never stand. Of course Diana knew Bruce vowed to be solely hers and hers alone. But that woman… Diana wanted to break Catwoman in half every time she came near her husband. She trusted Bruce. There was never any doubt about that, but she didn't trust her… not at all. Batman knew Diana didn't like Selina even though she's one of his few trusted allies. He made sure to only contact her, if it was absolutely necessary and a last resort. Only the members within the batclan and the league knew about Batman's powers as it unofficially made him the most powerful member of the league. Everyone in the league heard about the sparring match between Batman and Superman. Of course no one was surprised to hear that Superman won. But now, Batman had become more dangerous than Superman because of the fact that Batman would easily do what Superman simply refused to do. Everyone knows that Superman is the 'Boy Scout', that he only uses force when necessary. He lives on morals and compassion. Batman on the other hand, lives through fear, brutal tactics, and intimidation. Being taken down by Superman was healthier for criminals, just surrender and be taken to jail after a little lecture. But if they were to be taken down by Batman, they would be in the hospital for a month before going to jail. According to some members like Flash, Superman slipped to being the third most powerful member of the league. Flash told Diana that she was more powerful than Superman because she had the power to control Batman and everything he's capable of.

"Oracle… status update on the Birds." Diana turned her attention to Batman as he spoke into his earpiece. He was crouching, looking down at the factory as she stood inches behind him with her arms crossed while Batgirl and Robin were next to them waiting for Batman's orders.

"They are good. They swept through the eastside financial district and uncovered some information on what The Riddler may actually be after. I'll upload the info when you get back to the cave. Do you want me to send the Birds your way?" The three of them heard Oracle talk to Batman through their own earpieces.

Batman took a minute to think. "No. I'll come to you… this doesn't seem like The Riddler's M.O. Have N, and the Birds be there when I get there."

"Alright. But what do you think he's trying to do?" Oracle said.

"I have my theories… but I'll see what the Birds have to make sure. There's activity… talk later, Batman out." The four of them watch as twelve trucks rolled into the factory.

"Robin, Batgirl… Enter the factory from the nearside. We'll enter from the south. Engage them on my mark." Batman motioned as both Robin and Batgirl nodded and began to make their way to the roof of the factory. He and Wonder Woman flew to the far end of the building and silently entered it from there.

They made their way onto the catwalk and saw Robin and Batgirl on the opposite end. Looking down at the henchmen Batman tapped on his earpiece. "Forty-seven men, fifteen with automatic rifles. Three on the north end, five on the south, five in the center, and two at the entrance. Batgirl… take the ones in the north. Robin, the entrance. Wonder Woman will clear the south, and I'll cover the center. Take the rest down as you converge towards me." It always amazed Diana how fast Batman could analyze a situation and memorize exactly where everyone was at.

"On my mark" Batman took out three bat-a-rangs while Wonder Woman grabbed a smoke bomb out of his belt.

"NOW" Batman whispers loudly through the earpiece as he threw the three bat-a-rangs at three of the five thugs in the middle while jumping down towards the other two. The instant Batman left the catwalk, Wonder Woman threw the smoke bomb at the three gunners she was responsible for and knocked them all out before they could get a shot off.

Batman broke the first of the two remaining gunner's nose while taking his rifle and smashing it on the second's head. "_D covered my back…R and BG finished with their gunners and are making their way to me… need more cover._" He immediately took out five more smoke bombs and threw them around Robin, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman as the remaining henchmen ran towards them to fight. With the added cover the smoke provided, the four of them easily cleared out the factory.

Batman was interrogating the leader of the thugs while Robin, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman were gathering up all the broken, bloodied, and unconscious bodies that were lying in the factory. Diana couldn't help but feel very proud of herself as she watched Robin and Batgirl tie up the last two men. For one thing, everything went smoothly. It took her longer than she liked to be able to work with Batman the way the rest of the batclan did. To know what he would do in any given situation, what the others would do, what she would do, to know that Batman knew what she would do, when she would do it, to know which techniques to use to complement his or the others during different situations, to know when to help and how to help. Everything about teaming up with Batman during his patrols in Gotham meant being precise and accurate. No mistakes. It was all about team chemistry as everything was timed. The trust level between all of them was so high that each and every one of them knew approximately how long each one would take to complete their jobs while knowing exactly when and where the others would be at any given moment. They wouldn't even check to see how the others were doing until they finished their assignments. After working with the batclan, teaming up with Justice League members seemed boring. Teamwork within the league also seemed completely unorganized compared to how the batclan worked. Diana wondered just how good the league would be if they were this detailed oriented, but she knew, just as Batman knew, that the majority of the leaguers didn't have discipline to do this.

From out of the corner of her eye, she watched Batgirl and Robin take down their share of thugs. They worked perfectly together. Batgirl was quick and efficient, only hitting each thug no more than three times with a combination of her fists and feet to take them down. Robin was more of an environmental type of fighter, using whatever was around him to get the job done. Of course she always kept an eye on Batman as she made sure he was free from harm. Watching him work was always amazing to her. Now that he was back in his prime, she saw him at his best. Never missing a mark, always thinking three, four… or however many steps ahead and executing his plans flawlessly.

"Find anything useful?" Diana smirked, now seeing the unconscious leader being thrown into the pile of thugs.

"Depends…" Batman said flatly as he reached for his earpiece with his left hand while putting a computer hard drive in his belt. "Oracle… Be there in ten, I got something I need you to look at."

"Alright, N, H, and BC are here." Oracle said.

Before the police came, Batman and Diana picked up Robin and Batgirl and took off into the sky towards Oracle's base at the highest point in Gotham, the Gotham Clock Tower.


	2. Someone New

**A/N:** Thanks guys! Yes… I hated it when Barbra was first put into a wheelchair and stopped being Batgirl like that. But I believe having this tragedy really helps set the mood that is the darkness of Batman's world.

I decided to change Diana's appearance. I think her new look kind of matches Batman's better than the original one. It gives her an edgier look, especially in the dark.

Hopes this chapter satisfies you for now. Thanks for reading and any reviews and comments are greatly appreciated!

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><p><strong>Someone New<strong>

"What do you want witch? Aren't you supposed to be in jail?"

"Ares, The God of War… I was paroled on the agreement that I do not harm Queen Hippolyta or her pretty little daughter Princess Diana. But you look bored and I thought you could use some amusement at the Princess' expense." Circe, the magical nymph walked up to Ares with an evil grin on her face.

"And what is it that you have in mind if you are not allowed to harm the Princess?" Ares scratched his chin in interest. Despite his lustful determination to have the most beautiful Amazon for himself, he too despised Princess Diana as she and her Justice League had been recently stopping his plans time and time again in causing violent chaos around the world.

"Yes it is true that I'm not allowed to do anything to her, but they never said anything about her pointy-eared husband." Circe's grin grew wider as she saw the approval of The God of War.

"Hmm… you are talking about the so-called Greek Champion Batman no doubt." Ares sat up, now eagerly waiting to hear what Circe was conjuring up.

"It seems to me that the best way to send Diana crumbling down is through her heart… and nothing can damage her heart more than for her to see her beloved husband in pain that she cannot heal. From what I've found out, there is nothing that haunts The Batman more than to see his 'family' suffering in excruciating pain." Circe brought up a vision cloud revealing Robin, Nightwing, and the original Batgirl.

"Yes I see… but what are you going to do? Turn them into bats? What does this have to do with me?" Ares was growing irritated with Circe's insistence on stringing him along with her plan.

"Yes that does sound like a good idea, I'll do that eventually… but what I have planed will devastate the so-called Dark Knight and his little Princess." Circe went on to reveal her scheme knowing that Diana will soon suffer a pain worse than death.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, and Batgirl entered Oracle's secret base. It was a dark room lighted by the blue glow emanating from the many computer screens that filled the walls with the exception of one. That wall was fully stocked with every piece of weaponry that each member of the batclan used.

"This better be good old man… I could be sleeping you know." Nightwing said sarcastically with a smirk on his face as both The Huntress and Black Canary stood next to him wondering what Batman wanted.

Diana raised her eyebrow as she looked at both Black Canary and The Huntress. "Where are the rest of the Birds?"

"They are on a mission for the league doing something in Asia." Black Canary said while yawning.

"Oracle… status report on what the Birds have found." Batman plugged in the hard drive that he took from the thugs earlier into one of the computers.

"I cross referenced everything they found… notice anything?" Oracle pointed at the obvious clue on the screen. "Clayface, Two Face, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Joker… all the major players are there. But Clayface Two Face, Joker, and Harley are still in Arkham…"

Oracle started uploading the files stored on the hard drive as Batman turned towards the rest of the batclan. "The Riddler… for whatever reason is letting us know who's playing his game. From what we've gathered so far, it obviously involves a jailbreak. But he is waiting for something… or someone…"

Nightwing scratched his head in confusion. "But this doesn't sound like The Riddler at all."

"Exactly… he's either doing something new or he's working for someone new…" Batman looked back onto the computer screen as Oracle was going through the information.

Diana placed her fists on her hips. "Well if he's planning to bust them out of Arkham… why don't we just have a stakeout there? I'm sure we can defeat all of them easily before they can actually regroup."

"We will Princess… but first we got to know what the Riddler wants before he attempts the jailbreak, and why he wants to include everyone in his plan. Going up against them blind will most likely put us in a trap." Batman's eyes widened for an instant as he realized what was on the screen.

Oracle spotted the same clue as she looked up at Batman. "Him? Is he just waiting for him to do a simple smash and grab at Arkham?"

Batman stood up while narrowing his eyes as he continued to analyze everything. "Bane will easily destroy Arkham…"

"Not if we have anything to say about it." The Huntress playfully punched Black Canary in the arm.

"Yea… this seems just like a trap to get you to fight all of them at once Bruce." Dinah said while giving Helena a slightly harder punch on the arm in return.

"Maybe so… but there's definitely more to this than that. There's something else he's after. There are three different shipments scheduled for tomorrow night at 2:00am. Diana and I will take the one in Gotham Harbor… Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl will take the factory in the industrial district. Huntress and Canary, cover the downtown factories. Stay in contact for any updates that may come up." Batman motioned to let everyone know that the meeting was done for the night.

"Finally I can get some sleep! It's already five in the morning! Come on Babs, let go knock out." Nightwing stretched his arms above his head yawning before wheeling Oracle out of the room. The others followed, leaving Bruce and Diana to themselves.

"You know Bruce… sleep does sound like a good idea." Diana yawned with a seductive smile on her face as she stood in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, blocking him off from the computer screens.

Batman unemotionally stared into her beautiful pearl eyes. "I have work to do Prin….." Diana cut him off as she kissed him passionately. She pulled back and broke the contact that her lips made with his to allow both of them to catch their breaths. She slowly pulled off his cowl and massaged the back of his head with her fingers, patiently waiting for his eyes to meet hers. Diana knew she had him the instant he looked back into her eyes.

"I hate it when you do that…" Bruce muttered out as his hands rested on her hips, holding her in place.

Diana laughed softly. "Your body says otherwise… and right now it's telling me that you need to sleep with me tonight." Grinning, she grabbed his hand and led him out of the base while he quickly put his cowl back on.

"Oracle… Status report" Batman crouched on the rooftop with Wonder Woman standing behind him as he spoke into his earpiece while they looked down at Gotham Harbor.

"Everything's quiet… N, BG, and R are bored while the Birds just took care of unrelated random criminals breaking into a jewelry store."

Batman noticed two vans pulling up to dock 13. "I have activity, keep the rest on alert. Batman out."

Batman and Wonder Woman quietly made their way into the ship's cargo bay and observed the henchmen's activities. "Hurry up with those crates! The boss said to watch out for the Bat. I want to get out of here before he shows up!" The leader of the thugs shouted as Batman motioned to Wonder Woman to prepare to strike.

"BATMAN WE HAVE A SITUATION!" Oracle's voice was loud and filled with fear.

Batman gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Make it quick" He knew that whatever Oracle was about to say had to be extremely important.

On the same channel as Batman and Oracle, Diana listened intently knowing that something was wrong. "Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl have been attacked! Robin's vitals are out! And Nightwing and Batgirl are not responding!" Batman's eyes widened with shock as he immediately looked at Diana. Her jaw hung in disbelief as her eyes were filled with fear.

"Patch me their last known location and send the Birds." Both Batman and Wonder Woman quickly left the ship and flew straight to the coordinates Oracle sent them. They found both Nightwing and Batgirl unconsciously lying on the roof of an office building across the street from the factory they were watching. Batman immediately began setting up a crime scene on the rooftop to search for clues.

Wonder Woman tended to both Batgirl and Nightwing while The Birds of Pray arrived. "Oracle, it's Wonder Woman… Both Nightwing and Batgirl are unconscious but don't seem to have sustained any major physical injuries."

The Oracle sighed in relief. "OK… send them to the cave. I'll have Alfred on standby."

Diana looked up to see the Birds standing next to her. "Good, I'll send the Birds to pick you up and bring you to the cave as soon as we leave."

"What happened?" Black Canary said with concern as she watched Batman carefully search the roof.

"We're not sure… they were attacked and Robin is missing… his suit's vital life support system stopped…" Wonder Woman stood up to wait for Batman to finish.

"Do you think he's…" The Huntress said nervously.

Wonder Woman shook her head trying to make sense of what just happened. "I don't know… but why would they only take Robin?"

Batman stood up and moved over towards them with an unemotional look, but Diana could tell that he was furious about Robin's disappearance and the possibility that he could be dead. His eyes became very thin slits as he spoke with great anger in his voice. "There's nothing here… whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. There's no sign of any kind of struggle. Everyone get to the cave. Wonder Woman and I will take Batgirl and Nightwing." Without saying or doing anything else, Batman picked up Nightwing and flew towards the cave.

Not really knowing how to react to Batman's words, Diana hesitated before looking at the two Birds. "Meet you guys there" She picked up Batgirl before taking off to follow Batman.

As Oracle and the Birds reached the batcave, Alfred and Wonder Woman were tending to both Batgirl and Nightwing in the medical station while Batman was on the computer trying to figure out who was behind the attack. Oracle wheeled up to Batman and began working with him. "Find anything yet?"

"No… from what I got at the crime scene, I'd say the person revealed himself to them and somehow was able to take all three down without any resistance… we have to wait for Nightwing and Batgirl to wake up to find out what exactly happened." Batman looked over to see his two protégés surrounded by his worried team.

Batgirl was the first to wake as she shot up looking around only to see that she was back in the cave sitting next to an unconscious Nightwing while everyone rushed over to her. She was a little dazed at first as she touched the back of her head feeling the continuously throbbing pain. Batman was the last to walk up to her. He looked into her eyes as his face asked her if she was ok. She nodded back and slammed her right fist into her left palm, signaling to him that she was furious about what had happened and that she was ready for another round with the person who attacked her. She went straight to the training station and began fighting training droids despite the insistence to rest from everyone in the cave except Batman. She hated losing a fight, even more so than Batman.

Nightwing finally awoke half an hour later, opening his eyes to see Back Canary and The Huntress talking quietly to each other at his side. "Do you think this has anything to do with The Riddler and his plans?"

Black Canary shrugged her shoulders "I don't know… even if it is… I know Dick, Cass, and Tim definitely would have put up a better fight than that…"

"Could you two not talk so loud? It feels like jackhammers are drilling through my head…" Nightwing sat up holding his head.

Both of them snapped their heads to him as they shouted in unison "What happened? Are you ok?"

Oracle instantly raced up to her fiancé and hugged him as Batman followed. Batman looked at Nightwing as his eyes narrowed. "What happened?"

"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking…" Nightwing said sarcastically before getting to his story. "We were on the roof watching our target when Cass noticed that someone was watching us from behind. We all turned around and it was this guy dressed like Joker's old alter ego, The Red Hood. But it wasn't The Joker… he didn't talk like him or sound like him. He looked at Cass first, saying that she is nothing compared to the original Batgirl. Then at Tim, saying he was weak and a pathetic choice to continue the legacy of Robin. Then he nodded to me saying 'Isn't that right Dick?' He somehow knew who we were! I have no idea how, but he did… we were shocked and were about to question him but something struck us from behind before we blacked out. It was like nothing I've ever felt before…" Nightwing scanned the room and saw everyone standing beside him while Batgirl was fighting training robots. "Where's Tim?"

"He… he took him Dick…" Oracle said quietly as she looked down holding his hand.

"WHAT! What are we going to do?" Nightwing shouted in anger as he stood up and faced Batman.

Batman snapped his fingers to get Batgirl's attention before speaking as Cassandra came and stood between him and Diana. "For one thing, he knows who we are so everyone keep a low profile. Obviously he knows more than he led on… how much more remains to be seen. It wouldn't surprise me if he knew about the location of the cave as well as Oracle's base in the clock tower. Everyone will travel in pairs… at a minimum… and report to me even if the slightest thing feels out of place."

Batman looked into everyone's eyes seeing that what they really wanted from him was his thoughts on Robin's condition. He took a breath and continued "For whatever reason, he only wanted Robin… I believe that Robin is still alive. If he wanted to kill Robin, both Batgirl and Nightwing would be dead as well." Batman motioned to both Dick and Cass before continuing. His voice then turned from flat and unemotional to one with anger and rage embedded in it. "Which brings me to the obvious… he wants us to play his game."

Regaining control of his emotions, Batman forced his voice back into the flat monotone one that everyone was used to hearing. "Finding him will be difficult. If he's good enough to figure out who we are, he's good enough to hide from us. For now, Oracle will work here as this will be the only base of operations… I won't take any chances, everyone is to report to Oracle with any information they find."

"Should we have The Justice League help us with this?" Diana asked Batman, realizing that it was a dumb question the instant the words left her mouth.

"No. This stays here. Robin's absence is not to be discussed outside of this circle." Batman looked at The Huntress and Black Canary, already knowing the questions on their minds. "I don't know if this is at all related to The Riddler's plans with the rest of the Arkham inmates, but we'll find out one way or another."


	3. Preying on the Birds

**A/N: **Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year! Any and all reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

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><p><strong>Preying on the Birds<strong>

"Damn it! I can't believe we haven't found anything yet!" The Huntress slammed her fist into the head of a gargoyle statue as both her and Black Canary stood within the shadows, high above the streets of Gotham.

"Calm down… it's only been a day. Batman will find him… he always does." Black Canary crossed her arms while leaning on another gargoyle as she looked down below.

"Not if I find him first… come on lets go." The Huntress took out a grapple and fired it towards the rooftop of a building across the street. The two of them moved from rooftop to rooftop before stopping at a check point on their designated route.

"You know you don't have to prove anything to him… if he didn't trust you, you wouldn't be here." Black Canary leaned over the edge of the roof to take a quick peek to see if there were any signs of trouble.

The Huntress gritted her teeth and glared at Black Canary. "And what makes you think I care what he thinks?"

"Because Helena… He's Batman… and everyone wants his approval. Isn't that right Dinah?" Both Black Canary and The Huntress quickly turned around to see The Red Hood standing behind them in the shadows. His attire was different than what he originally wore. As he stepped out to face them, they saw his signature blood red helmet with white screened eyes, black leather jacket with a grey armored shirt, a pistol holder latched onto his belt, black pants, and black boots.

"Where's Robin you bastard!" The Huntress yelled out as both she and Black Canary went into their fighting stances.

"So quick to fight… You know nothing about me Helena, or what I am capable of… I am sure Bruce has taught you better than that… I guess not." The Hood crossed his arms as he sized the both of them up.

"SHUT UP! You know nothing about me! I'll beat your ass then force you to tell me where Robin is!" Anger and rage soared through Helena's body as she was about to leap at The Hood.

"I know everything about the both of you… You Helena… how your parents died. How Bruce trained you. How you let him down. Let the team down. Always trying to prove yourself to him. How it constantly eats at you, that you're not good enough… oh… I know all about it." The Hood moved closer so that he was about three feet away from them before he continued "Dinah… how's your husband Ollie? Did you ever tell him that you had a crush on Bruce? Does Diana know that you two had a thing for each other in the past? I'm sure they would both be interested to know…"

Dinah was shocked. She couldn't believe that this guy… whoever he is… knew about that. It was so long ago, way before she had ever met Green Arrow or even before Batman met Wonder Woman. She never told Ollie about it because it didn't seem all that important, even though Ollie and Bruce always did seem to have a friendly rivalry with each other. Both were rich billionaires with a super hero persona that used tons of tricky gadgets. She fought alongside Bruce back then because he was the best. He helped her become a better fighter as well as a better detective. Bruce is a trusted friend, the one person besides Ollie that she could go to for anything. Hell…Batman's the only person in the world that she would ever need to bail her out of the trouble she might get herself into. The only reason she's in Gotham so often was because she formed The Birds of Prey with The Oracle and The Huntress.

Ironically it was Batman who sort of helped them meet each other when he convinced Green Arrow to join The Justice League. Dinah remembered when she was putting on her boots after finishing her training sessions when both Batman and Green Arrow were talking. That was when she first saw him out of the corner of her eye. He was staring at her with a look of amazement. Batman looked over to see what he was looking at, smirked and said something to him before Ollie walked away. Dinah didn't think anything of it, he was just another guy until Batman walked by and thanked her for single handedly recruiting the Green Arrow. Between Bruce and Ollie… Bruce has the better toys, fighting skills, charm, and brain. But Ollie has the better charisma, personality, and looks… well in her eyes he does… Diana seemed to think differently about all of those traits.

Dinah immediately snapped out of her thoughts when The Hood started laughing. "You two against me… it really doesn't seem like a fair fight for the both of you."

Dinah's eyes narrowed as her anger began to build as well. She knew that fighting with anger and frustration may increase one's strength and endurance, but it also significantly decreases one's judgment, technique, and senses. She knew he was pissing them off on purpose. "Huntress… we got to be methodical about…"

Before she could finish The Huntress charged at The Hood and began fighting him. Dinah rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before joining her friend in the fight. The Hood blocked everything they threw at him as if he already knew what was coming. He would counter each attack and land a direct hit onto either The Huntress or Black Canary.

"Please tell me this isn't the best you both got… there's no way either of you are protégés of Batman… how pathetic." The Hood blocked Black Canary's kick and hit her under her jaw with an uppercut, sending blood spewing out of her mouth as she fell back.

"_No… that asshole! I'll break his neck!_" The Huntress was exhausted. Her rage got the better of her while the many shots to her body were beginning to take their toll. She charged at him desperately trying to land any of her attacks. The Hood continued to dodge and block The Huntress' attacks until he sensed that she had drained up most of her energy. He finally deflected one of her punches with his left hand and broke her nose with the right. Stunned by the powerful hit, The Huntress could only grab her face and feel the blood quickly running down her chin as The Hood pulled her towards him and broke two of her right ribs with his left elbow.

"_No… got to save her…_" Black Canary saw The Huntress take the two fatal blows and collapsed onto the floor. Her body was bruised, beaten, and tired but she forced herself to get up as she charged at The Hood only to have him easily dodge her, hit her in the stomach with such a powerful force that her vital organs began bleeding internally.

The Hood viciously slammed the back of her head into the floor. "Seriously you both aren't even a challenge." Black Canary coughed up more blood before The Hood finished her off with another blow to the temple.

"_Damn it… need to call Oracle for help…_" The Huntress could only watch helplessly as her friend was beaten down in a bloody mess. Her body refused to move as she tried to reach for her earpiece but The Hood quickly threw what looked like one of Robin's bat-a-rangs into her hand. The Huntress pulled out the razor sharp blade that punctured her hand as she rolled over to her side before trying to get up. The Hood kicked The Huntress in her broken ribs, popping her up into the air. Before she could fall back down, The Hood brutally slammed her head into the floor face first, knocking her out.

"B it's O… BC and H haven't checked in. I'm sending you their last known coordinates." Batman's head quickly snapped towards Wonder Woman as he heard Oracle's news.

He saw the look of concern and fear filling her eyes. "Send Nightwing and Batgirl there as well." They both started flying as soon as the coordinates were uploaded. "Our ETA, forty-five seconds."

"Gotcha, N and BG should be there in sixty-five." Oracle said.

Batman and Wonder Woman landed on the rooftop where The Huntress and Black Canary fought The Red Hood only to find blood all over the floor. Batman quickly began setting up a crime scene as Wonder Woman looked around in complete shock and frustration. "How could someone attack both of them like this? Why didn't they call us for backup?" Her arms were shaking in anger as she couldn't believe that they were being taken down one by one. She wanted to break the person responsible for this in half.

Nightwing and Batgirl stepped onto the roof wide-eyed and in disbelief. "What happened?"

"Only Black Canary's and The Huntress' blood are on the floor… along with these…" Batman held out one of Robin's bat-a-rangs and a computer disk in his hand.

"I don't understand… what would The Hood want with The Huntress and Black Canary that he didn't want with us?" Nightwing said angrily as he motioned to himself and Batgirl.

"The Huntress' and Black Canary's communicators are still here along with The Huntress' belt and equipment. We won't be able to track them." Batman stood up after thoroughly searching the roof. "Get back to the cave."

"THEY WHAT!" Oracle shouted in utter shock.

"They were beaten badly… their blood was all over the rooftop Barb…" Dick gritted his teeth as he watched Batman load the disk into the computer.

Diana placed her hand on Batman's shoulder as he sat in his chair. "Are you sure you want to do that? What if there's some type of virus or signal hidden in it?"

"You know me better than that… I already scanned the disk before I took it with me back on the roof. There's only a video clip on it." The others gathered around Batman to watch what was about to be displayed.

It was The Red Hood standing in an unrecognizable dark room with Robin chained up in the background. He was beaten, but not severely enough to say that he was on the verge of dying. His arms were held by two individual giant restraints above his head while his legs were clamped down to the floor. His mouth was taped shut and his belt was removed. "What's up Bruce? It's been a long time… First I must admit, the last thing I ever expected you to do was marry… and of all the women in the world, you marry Wonder Woman. That's a surprise… I wonder what she sees in you… well then again, you are Batman, and who's better than the World's Greatest Dark Knight? But still… knowing you… and I do know you Bruce… I half expected that Selina would be the woman for you…" Hearing her name made Diana unconsciously crunch the surface of the computer console with her fingers. Everyone looked at the damaged computer surface as they took a few steps away from her. Batman ignored her completely as he continued to stare coldly at his new adversary.

"But I digress… so I'll get straight to the point." The Hood walked up to Robin and punched him across the face. "All of your newly acquired protégés are pathetic…" Batman clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles were as white as his screened eyes. "Now that you're watching this… it means that I have successfully taken down The Huntress and The Black Canary."

The Red Hood shook his head in disappointment. "You are Batman… BATMAN… and yet you have recruited and gathered so many teammates over the years since we last…" The Hood paused, thinking of the right word to use. "encountered… each other. You are even immortal and have super powers now! Yes… I know all about your powers, just like I know how you used to HATE magic! You disappoint me Bruce… You used to pride yourself on doing things YOUR way, without help from others… especially those with POWERS! You have lost your edge… Your lovely wife, The Justice League, your Birds of Prey… they all have made you soft… you're NOT the Batman I once knew, the one embedded in total darkness… the one who struck fear into everyone… the cold, unforgiving, unemotional Dark Knight that needed NO ONE except himself to get the job done… But it doesn't matter anymore… No…"

The Red Hood stopped and regained his composure from his emotional outburst before continuing with a flat unemotional tone. "I represent all the people that you have failed. The ones you failed to save. I am your failure… when I am done with you… everyone will know. And if they do speak of you again, they will only speak of you as a failure. Vengeance will be mine. What I want is simple Bruce… to meet you face to face on top of Wayne Tower tomorrow night so we can finish this conversation alone… and to reassure myself that you will come alone… I have strapped explosives to myself as well as explosives to The Huntress and Black Canary… all of which are set to explode the instant my heart stops." The Hood opened up his jacket, showing wires planted onto his grey armored shirt. "If I detect anyone near us… they will die. If you disappoint me… they will die. As for him…" The Hood tilts Robin's chin up with his left hand so his face became clear on the screen before brutally punching him across the face once more. "Believe me when I say that his fate will rest in your hands… are you going to fail him too Bruce?"

The video cuts off as Batman's rage and anger were pushing past their limits. "_He claims to know me well… and given the way he talks about me, it seems like he does. He has a connection with Robin…a strong hatred for him, but why Robin? Believes that he, himself, is my failure…obviously wants me to relive a past failure… my failure…_"

"Bruce?" Diana nervously placed her hand on his shoulder as she watched him deep in thought. Batman didn't respond and began researching on the computer as if he were on to something. "Bruce please talk to me… let us help. Let me help." Diana didn't want to push it, not this time… She knew better than anyone else when to get him to talk and when to let him be. Whoever this person is, he had completely outsmarted Batman as if he knew what he was thinking. Diana turned to the remaining members of the batclan to see if they had any insight as to what was going on.

"Alright, Cass and I will continue to scout the city for Tim, Helena, and Dinah. Diana you stay with the old man till he comes up with something better. Babs… work your magic." Nightwing motioned towards the computer, hoping she could find something… anything that could help them.

"No" Batman cut Nightwing off coldly. "We are going to play his game… for now. Take control of the computer, cross reference everything on the list I provided." Batman motioned for Oracle to take over as he stood up looking at Diana first before shifting his sights to Nightwing and Batgirl.

"You mean you want us to just sit back and do nothing while Tim, Dinah, and Helena are being tortured out there somewhere!" Nightwing swung his arm behind him, exemplifying the point that three of their family members are missing as he angrily glared at Batman. "And all you want to do is let him manipulate you? Play his game? With their lives on the line?"

No one moved. The tension was extremely high. It felt like the cave would explode any second. Both Diana and Barbra darted their eyes back and forth between Bruce and Dick hoping they wouldn't push each other further. Cassandra leaned against the computer with her arms crossed as she had an unemotional disinterested look on her face. It had been a very long time since these two were at each other's throats. Not that this situation was even close to reaching that level. But with a few recklessly used words, it could get to that level quickly.

Batman glared right back at Nightwing "He obviously knows who we are. How we think, fight, our tendencies, our weaknesses… if he wanted them dead, they would be dead by now… just like how he could have killed the both of you." Batman pointed to both Nightwing and Batgirl. "It's pointless to search for them. If he knows me as well as I think he does… we won't find them. Besides he already proved that he can get behind you unnoticed. Everyone is staying here and going to sleep. Oracle and I will work until we can identify who he actually is." Batman turned to look at Diana. "We WILL get them back."

Nightwing wanted to argue with Batman but knew he was right. He went up to the mansion as Batgirl headed towards the training area. She was still pissed off about being taken out so quickly. Diana slowly walked up to Bruce and carefully took off his cowl as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her watery blue eyes were filled with sorrow and despair. His eyes held anger and frustration as he placed his forehead on hers. "Bruce… loving someone and caring for those closest to you isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength and honor. Your love for me has made me stronger than ever." She kissed him softly, making sure he could feel the love she had for him. Diana broke her kiss but didn't pull away as she looked back into his eyes. "I love you Bruce. Never forget that." She gently placed his cowl back over his face as she smiled warmly before heading off to bed. Diana always knew the right thing to say at the right time… even during the darkest of times.


	4. His Greatest Failure

**His Greatest Failure**

"Everyone stays here. I'll deal with The Hood myself and keep a line open with Oracle. When the location of Black Canary and The Huntress is known, get them immediately. Under no circumstances are any of you to come for me, not while he still has Robin. Hood is mine, and mine alone." Batman eyeballed each and every member of his team, making sure his orders were clear.

"Bruce…" Worried, Diana took a step towards him only to be stopped as Batman held his hand up.

"We must get Black Canary and The Huntress back. I will not jeopardize the safety of their lives. I won't fail them Diana. DO NOT come for me while I'm confronting The Hood." Batman gently brushed the sided of her cheek with his hand before turning back to the rest of the team. "Just so you all know… although I may have said or acted otherwise… if there was anything I could do to save any of you from dying short of taking a life besides my own, I'd do it." Batman turned away and flew off into the night to finally meet The Red Hood face to face.

Nightwing slammed his fists into the computer console as he hung his head to much of the surprises of Diana and Oracle. Initially they both thought that he was shocked as much as they were when Bruce actually opened up to all of them, but his face told them that he was furious. "Damn it!" He stared at the keyboard, clenching his jaw while his body shook in anger.

"What is it Dick? What's wrong?" Oracle asked hesitantly.

"He knows who Hood is…" Nightwing spat out through his teeth.

"Are you sure? I… I don't understand… why are you mad at him? Do you know who he is? Is it because he wanted to face him alone? But The Hood told us he only wanted Batman or he would kill Dinah and Helena…" Diana said carefully, not wanting to aggravate Dick's anger any further.

"Yes I know he knows… and no… I'm not mad at Bruce… its just…DAMN IT!" Nightwing punched the computer again, this time breaking the unit and startling everyone, including Batgirl.

"What? What is it Dick?" Barbra placed her hand on his, trying to get him to elaborate on his frustration.

Nightwing looked up at Barbra with deep pain and grief in his eyes "It's Hood… I know who he is... I just hope I'm wrong…"

"What? How did you figure it out?" Oracle started to go to the computer to see if Bruce had left anything on there.

"Because of what Bruce said… everything fits… I just want to know when he actually figured it out…" Nightwing took a deep breath as he looked up into the darkness of the cave.

"Who? Who is he Dick?" Diana asked anxiously.

"Jason" Batman stood concealed within his cape in front of the so-called Red Hood as he crossed his arms.

"So you've figured it out. Can't say that I'm impressed… how long did it take you? I wondered if the clues in my message might have been too obvious." The Hood stepped out of the shadows twirling one of Robin's bat-a-rangs in his left hand.

Batman's eyes narrowed at the sight of it. "How did you come back to life?"

"No Bruce! The question is HOW COULD YOU LET ME DIE!" The Hood angrily threw the bat-a-rang at Batman's feet. "You let The Joker beat me down with a crowbar. A CROWBAR! You let him torture me. You let him KILL ME!"

"I did everything I could to get to you Jason… everything…" Batman's voice was still flat, but it had a hint of pain and regret within it.

"Bullshit! NO!" The Hood waved his hand in disgust before continuing. "You know what? That doesn't even matter. I died. The Joker killed me. Fine. But what I don't understand is HOW IN THE HELL IS HE STILL ALIVE! The Joker! He's killed so many people, destroyed so many families, he won't stop! NO! You let that bastard live! For what? To have him gun down Barbra?" Batman's fists clenched tightly as that stung tremendously.

Jason removed his helmet and dropped it on the floor. His face…he was just like Bruce remembered him, but a little older. His eyes showed nothing but anger and hatred. His skin was dried and coarse as his scars revealed the areas where the crowbar and explosion damaged his face. "Not only did you fail me, you failed her Bruce. My death, her pain… it's all your fault. You and I both know that the world would easily be better off with The Joker dead. If he had killed you, I would have avenged you. I would have KILLED HIM! I would have done anything to save you! Anything to avenge your death!"

Bruce never clenched his jaw tighter than he did right now. He hated The Joker for all that he had done. Almost killed The Joker for what he did to Jason and Barbra. "Jason…"

"NO!" Jason took another step and angrily pointed his finger at Bruce. "You did nothing! NOTHING! You just stood there and let me die! Sent him back to Arkham as if nothing happened! Nothing's changed. He's still alive and killing people. Still destroying families. Killing the mothers and fathers of innocent little boys. You say you do this to make sure that no little eight year old boy will ever lose his parents again, but you continue to let him do it." Bruce flinched as Jason continued. "Face it Bruce, when are you going to realize that your way doesn't work? You failed to save all those people, those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives… failed them all by letting him LIVE!"

Everything Jason said hit Bruce hard… he did fail Jason. He failed to save him, failed to train him better. Jason was Batman's greatest failure and he never forgave himself for it. Bruce pushed those memories out of his head as he forced himself to remain focused. There were three lives he needed to save, and he refused to fail them. "Fine… take your revenge on me, leave them out of this. You said you'd let them go."

"What your two Birds? Why should I? You should have left them out of this. I only wanted to deal with you. But no… you've gotten soft, needed others to help you get to me… Back in the day, you'd do this all on your own and get the job done. You're only a shell of your former self." Jason pulled out what looked like a tracking device and held it in his hand.

"What about Robin…" Batman growled as he tried to stay focused on the three in trouble.

"You mean the pretender? We'll deal with him in a minute… But a deal is a deal…" The Hood tossed the device towards Batman. An electrifying net sprang out, wrapping around him the instant he caught it. Batman couldn't move as he fell to the floor in agonizing pain. The electric flow pulsated through his entire body and seemed to only increase as he struggled to free himself. Even his super strength wasn't enough to break the net. Batman looked up at Jason as he crouched down beside him.

Jason picked up the tracking device with his hand and looked at it. "You must know your enemies and all of their weaknesses. You must know how to beat them before you engage them… You taught me that Bruce… an electrifying magical net… who knew?" Jason mockingly shrugged his shoulders as he stood up. "Since you're the one who wanted to make this a family affair… call your wife. I know you have them listening to this whole thing. Oh by the way, give my regards to both Babs and Dick… I can't say that it didn't hurt when they didn't send me an invite to their wedding."

"This stays between us" The last thing Bruce wanted to do was bring more of his family members into this mess.

"Do you want to save Helena and Dinah or not? Since you're tied up at the moment, someone else has to… call her, call her now. And just so you don't take too long…" Jason placed the tracking device on the floor in front of Batman. There was a timer on it ticking down. "You have less than ten minutes to get to them before the bombs explode. Like I said, their fate rests with you Bruce."

Diana couldn't believe what she was hearing. She never heard of Jason before, she thought that Tim was the one who replaced Dick as Robin. Dick filled her in during Batman's conversation with The Hood, but he told her that she would have to ask Bruce for the details. The story was already heart breaking. She now saw why Bruce worked so hard to isolate himself from everyone. He truly believed that everyone closest to him would end up in severe pain or worse, dead. Diana thought she knew everything about Bruce. That his brooding ways were just apart of him, his stubbornness to work alone or with very few trusted allies was just his way of doing things. She worked so hard to get so close to Bruce. To go from acquainted teammates to friends, from friends to best friends, from best friends to lovers… Diana refused let anyone take away what she has with Bruce – no one was going to take her world away from her. But now everything made sense. It was all so clear to her. Bruce lost one of his own, Batman lost a Robin… to The Joker of all enemies. If he failed to protect Robin, how could he trust himself to protect anyone else? And with that question, her eyes widened as it brought a revelation upon her. He couldn't, he didn't trust himself. Everyone who came to him afterwards forced themselves into his life. She did the same. Tim told Batman that he needed a Robin, forced Bruce to accept him. Canary and Huntress came before Jason's death. Cassandra was chosen by Barbra, and Bruce owed Lady Shiva a favor. Bruce had been keeping this inside him the whole time. Keeping the traumatic memories as a reminder of how dark his world truly is.

"Diana" Bruce called her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked at Oracle who nodded, insisting that she go. "Remember… don't do anything that might cause Jason to blow the explosives. He still has Tim, Diana." Diana nodded before taking a deep breath and flew to her husband.

Diana quickly found them and landed beside Bruce, glaring at Jason. She wanted to bash his head in for all the trouble he caused. "You don't like me already? Blame your sweet and loving husband for that. He's the reason for what I've become today. Well… actually it's just as much your fault as it is his…" Jason smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'll break you in two" Diana's glare intensified as if she was trying to burn a hole through his face.

"You're in no position to be giving out threats… now be a good little wife and save those two pitiful Birds." The Hood pointed to the tracking device on the floor. "You have less than five minutes."

Diana looked at the device on the floor, hesitant to pick it up. She didn't know if another net would pop out and trap her too. Sensing her hesitation, Bruce spoke up. "Go Diana, they need you. Save them."

Diana carefully picked up the tracker and read the coordinates before turning back to Jason. "This isn't over."

Jason smirked. "You have no idea Wonder Woman… but if you don't want to continue this without Dinah and Helena, I'd suggest you leave now." Diana took one last look at Bruce before taking off towards Helena and Dinah.

"Where's Robin?" Batman demanded, bringing Jason's attention back to him.

"Ahh yes… the pretender… seriously how could you give the title of Robin to him? He's pathetic and weak. He doesn't deserve to uphold the legacy of Robin!" Jason clenched his fist and waved the other in disgust.

Bruce glared at him as he responded coldly. "Tim is the definition of the legacy that is Robin. He's a better Robin than you or Dick ever was." That surprised everyone listening in on Batman except Nightwing. Oracle raised her eyebrow as she turned to Dick for an explanation, but he just crossed his arms, smirked, and motioned for her to continue to listen. Batgirl scratched her head trying to reason it out. It wasn't like Bruce to play favorites… Yes, Tim is the better detective but Dick is the better fighter. Diana flinched as she heard it but continued to fly towards Helena and Dinah. She landed on the roof of an old cabin on a garbage ship. She ripped open the roof and saw both Dinah and Helena tied up surrounded by explosives. They were still bleeding, badly beaten, and unconscious. She quickly scooped them up and flew back to the cave as quickly as possible.

"WHAT? Are you shitting me? There's no way that little punk means more to you than the rest of us!" Jason yelled through his gritted teeth.

"He means just as much to me as the rest of you. All of you. But that has nothing to do with Robin's legacy. Tim realized and understood what Robin meant to Batman and the city of Gotham. He alone gave meaning to the legacy of Robin. He showed me that having a Robin created a balance for Batman, and without that balance, Batman would be completely consumed within the darkness of Gotham… He was right. Tim became Robin because he knew there needed to be a Robin."

Batman's eyes narrowed, knowing Jason wasn't going to accept what he had to say next. "Dick saw being Robin as a thrill… that's probably why he outgrew it… among other things. He wanted his own life, he became Nightwing. That's his legacy. You… You saw it as a game… THAT'S what got you killed. I should have never let you become Robin when you did. You weren't ready. That's where I failed you."

"DAMN YOU! I'M NOT WEAK!" Jason's rage took over as he began to savagely beat Batman with his fists.

Diana entered the cave and quickly placed The Huntress and Black Canary on the medical tables for Alfred to tend to. She raced back to the computer to stand with Oracle, Nightwing, and Batgirl while listening to the sounds of Batman being pummeled by The Hood.

Jason stopped and stood up to catch his breath as he watched Batman spit out blood while shaking his head, trying to regain his vision. It had been a long time since he took a beating like this. Jason seemed to have super strength of his own. There was no possible way for Jason to damage his body like this without it. Batman tried to think of a connection between Jason's reappearance, his strength, and the magical net, but was interrupted by Jason's cold hardened words. "You believe Tim's the best Robin? We'll see about that. I won't be the only Robin you will have failed to save." Jason picked his helmet up and disappeared into the dark cold night leaving Batman lying on the roof.

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><p><strong>AN:** I decided to go further into Bruce's past in this one. I personally never really liked that storyline with Jason, but it's such a big part of Batman's history now. It does however, reinforce the mood that things must get worse before it starts getting better.

Thanks for reading! All reviews are greatly appreciated.


	5. Haunted Past

**A/N:**Hey guys! I'm not sure I depicted Bruce correctly here, but I decided to put a little more anguish in this story. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

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><p><strong>Haunted Past<strong>

"Batman? Can you get up? Batman!" Oracle's voice rang through his earpiece. No response. Nothing.

"I'll go get him… stay here with Dinah and Helena." Diana quickly took off towards Batman fearing the worst. Not so much about his physical health, but his psychological state of mind. Diana didn't know all the details of what exactly happened between those two in the past, but she had a very good idea and knew that it was destroying Bruce inside. Diana had to be very careful with him… even the slightest slip could easily set his emotional defenses off and push her away. It was always difficult dealing with his emotions during dark times, but this was by far the darkest that she's ever encountered with him. Her execution has to be flawless.

"_First thing's first… I'll update him on Dinah and Helena's condition…get his mind focused. It's probably the first thing he'd ask anyways._" Diana's feet touched the rooftop as she looked at Bruce lying on the floor staring in the direction that Jason disappeared in. "I found Dinah and Helena and got them to the cave, Alfred's tending to them now… they should be fine." Diana spoke in the most comforting tone she possibly could while disabling the net that trapped him. He didn't respond to anything, he didn't even get up after she freed him. "_No response… normal… good, he's focusing._" Diana carefully knelt beside him, placing her hand in his and waited.

Batman got up slowly, letting go of her hand as he moved to the edge of the roof. He continued to stare in the direction that Jason went as he planted his hands palms down onto the barrier. "_He's either working with someone or for someone. Someone powerful enough to bring him back…or smart enough to find a way to do the same…_"

Diana picked up the net and immediately recognized its Greek origins. Giving Batman a helpful clue that he didn't already know was always a good way to start a conversation. She slowly moved to Batman's side holding up the net between them. "The net… it's Greek… I fear that one of my enemies is helping him." She made sure not to look directly at him and kept her eyes on the net. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him turn his attention to her and then the net. Batman took the net from her hand and strapped it to his belt as she dropped her hand back to her side while pretending to look down at the streets of Gotham. Diana felt his eyes on her when he didn't return to his original position. She slowly turned to face him. Even with his cowl on, she could still see the pain in his eyes, she could feel it… Diana carefully inched closer to him, making sure not to set off any remaining defensive mechanisms that still might be working. Sensing it was safe to do so, she wrapped her arms around him as she placed her head on his shoulder.

He took in a deep breath as he held her in his arms. "I failed him…" Diana continued to hold him without saying a word. There was nothing she could say, it was a fact. He didn't save him.

Diana placed her arms around his neck as she looked into his eyes. She spoke slowly, being very careful with her choice of words. "You're not a failure. You're not because I believe in you, and I always will. You have always been able to overcome anything. This is no different… And right now I believe that you will overcome this and save Tim."

Batman slowly moved Diana's arms off of him before holding her left hand in his right. He glanced once more in the direction that Jason took off in before flying back to the cave with her.

"ALFRED!" Batman's eyes widened in horror as he saw him unconsciously lying on the floor, near the medical tables. The rest of the batclan were missing as both Diana and Bruce frantically searched the cave for any clues to explain what had happened. Anger boiled throughout Batman's veins as his rage took over. "JAAAASSSSSOOONNNN!"

Batman slammed his fists into the computer console, smashing it into pieces. Diana couldn't move. She was scared of him for the first time in her life. His rage… she's seen him beyond pissed off before, getting so very close to losing it, but to only watch him master his anger and force himself to think logically and rationally time and time again. Just like the time Joker shot Barbra, Batman almost gave in to his rage and nearly killed The Joker. Diana truly believed that if Bruce didn't lose his control then, there would be nothing that could ever make him give in. But here she was… watching him destroy his own computer in fear. Fear of what he was now capable of, of what he would do now that his rage gave the orders.

Bruce's control was the one thing she always relied on. That if anything were to happen, he would be the one to get everyone to focus on the task at hand. Diana was usually the one who gave in to her rage with Bruce being the one to calm her down. Sometimes Diana didn't know how Bruce was able to calm her down, but now she wished she knew… Diana was terrified and had no idea how to calm him down – not when he's like this.

"Master Bruce… forcing yourself to buy new equipment isn't going to help you find Master Dick and the others any faster." Alfred slowly stood up as he brushed off the bits of dust while straightening out his suit.

Heavily breathing, Bruce turned and glared at Alfred. Not affected by the glare, Alfred confidently walked up to him and spoke with a sense of disappointment and anger… both directed at Bruce. "I did not raise such a man to think with his fists, but with his head. You will do well to remember it, as I will not allow you to embarrass yourself in front of Mistress Diana." Alfred motioned towards Diana. She stared at him, still frozen by fear. Her eyes said it all as he looked into them.

Realizing what he had done… become… he collapsed to his knees looking down at the floor in shame. "I'm a failure…" Bruce ripped off his cowl and threw it at the ground, refusing to look at it.

Diana floated over to her husband and knelt beside him. She wrapped her arms around Bruce, holding him close. "You're not a failure Bruce…" she cupped his cheek with her hand, bringing his face to hers but he refused to look at her. "I love you. I won't allow you to fail."

Bruce took her hand off his face as he stood up and walked up to what was left of the computer and placed his hands on it. "I'm a failure… I'll eventually fail you just like I've failed the others. To be a part of my life is to live in constant pain and suffering. I should've never asked you to marry me. I should've never let you love me. I should've never let you into my world."

"NO! Don't you dare start pushing me away! NO BRUCE!" Diana knew Bruce was devastated. That he was broken down in an emotional wreck, but that didn't stop her anger from rising as fast as it did. She quickly walked up to him and spun him around to face her. "Look at me!"

Diana watched his eyes meet hers. The shame in Bruce's eyes disappeared as anger and disgust took over. "What kind of child gets his parents killed? What kind of man continuously lets a crazed psychopath terrorize a city? What kind of man allows a boy to enter his world? Place him in danger night after night. Give him insufficient training to fight the most dangerous of criminals. Allow that same psychotic killer capture and beat him down with a crowbar. To be so inefficient in tracking him down that the building explodes, killing the boy within it. To not put an end to his rein of terror. Allow him to hurt another again, gunning down a girl… paralyzing her from the waist down." Bruce's eyes narrowed as he spoke through his gritted teeth. "I failed. I failed to stop them from happening… all of which could have been easily avoided if I had worked alone."

"No Bruce… All of those things that have happened to you and the rest of us were NOT your failures. They were setbacks in life. Some more severe than others, but you always found a way to overcome them. You have endured more pain and suffering than anyone I know, and you have always came out standing tall. You believe that all these horrific and terrible things happen to you because you failed to stop them. But the truth is that all of these terrible things come to you because you're the best. You're better than everyone. They seek you out specifically because they know that if they can bring you down… there would be no one else to stop them." Diana placed both her hands on Bruce's chest, as her fingers ran along the bat symbol. "Please Bruce… we need you… I need you."

"Why?" Bruce looked into her eyes, seeing nothing but the warmth and love she had for him.

Diana smiled softly. "Because I love you. And I'll never allow you to fail, just like you have never allowed me to fail. I will always be by your side. That will never change." She moved her hands up crossing them behind his neck as she slowly brought herself closer and kissed him. "I love you too damn much."

"If I may interrupt Master Bruce, but I believe you have work to do." Alfred looked at Bruce with a sense of pride, knowing that he was back in his normal state of mind.

"Yes Alfred, thank you." Batman felt a presence within the cave. He knew someone was in there with the three of them. He quickly took out a bat-a-rang from his belt and threw it at the figure's head. Batman's eyes narrowed as the figure easily caught it before stepping out of the shadows near the far end of the cave.

"I see your sense of awareness is still among the best of even my assassins' detective." The man seemed to be in his late fifties, but very fit as his muscles were very noticeable. He was shirtless but had a green cape covering most of his body. His eyes were cold and dark and had the look of a ruthless killer.

"Ra's al Ghul" Now things were starting to make sense as Batman watched the assassin approach him.

"Contrary to what you might think detective… I've come here to ask of your assistance. One of my Lazarus Pits has been violated. The violators defeated my men by turning them into animals, and then used the pit to revive a boy back from the dead. I want their heads detective." Ra's clenched his fists in furry as both Batman and Diana eyes widened for an instant when he mentioned the word 'animals'.

"Circe!" Diana shouted in anger. "_That witch! How did she escape prison again! I'll have her head for this!_"

"You said violators… how many were there?" Batman asked, now wishing he hadn't destroyed his computer.

"From what my remaining men told me, there was a purple haired woman dressed in green, and a man in what looked like Greek armor with limitless power. Are they enemies of yours?" Ra's motioned towards Diana with a bit of resentment, he didn't see why Bruce had chosen this woman over his daughter Talia. As far as he was concerned, Talia was far more superior of a woman than this one standing before him.

Batman quickly took out the magical net that trapped him earlier and looked at it. "Diana, who has the power to possess an artifact like this?"

Diana took it from Batman's hand and analyzed it closely, seeing a symbol she'd recognize anywhere. "It was made by Hephaestus…this net was made to capture even the greatest of Gods in humiliation." The connection was all too easy, even for her. Diana's anger boiled throughout her veins while her nails dug deep into the palms of her hands as she clenched them in rage. "ARES!"

"A God is the source of this violation?" Ra's eyebrows arched up in surprise. "What have the both you done to anger The God of War?"

"Long story" Batman picked up his cowl and placed it back over his face.

"Maybe so detective… But even The League of Assassins dare not challenge the wrath of a God." Ra's turned to leave the cave. "But if you do manage to defeat The God of War… I would ask you to make his punishment worse than death."

After watching Ra's leave the cave Diana turned and followed Batman towards the batmobile. She instantly focused her thoughts on Circe as her anger stormed through her body. "Let's find that witch! I'll make her pay dearly for this!"

"Patience Princess… if we are to find and fight both Circe and Ares, we are going to need help." Batman quickly jumped into the driver's seat. "With our numbers down to two… there's only one available person left in Gotham who I trust to do what needs to be done my way."


	6. The many faces of Robin

**A/N: **This chapter was pretty exciting to write! I couldn't help but bring in another one of my favorite characters. For a guy who's supposed to be a loner, Bruce does have a lot of very close allies! I remember Superman saying something along those lines in the cartoon… pretty funny when Bruce glared at him after he said it.

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><p><strong>The many faces of Robin<strong>

She took off her black top hat and bowed to the many people cheering for her before walking off the stage and back into her dressing room. With the wave of her wand, her crystal ball came out from the closet and settled on the table replaying her performance. She sat down and with another wave of her wand, a hot cup of coffee appeared as she took a sip of it.

"Ahh… a job well done. You know Bruce… If you and Diana wanted to watch my show, all you had to do was ask. I'm sure front row seats or backstage passes are better than sitting in here the whole time." The smirk on her face grew as Batman and Wonder Woman stepped out from the shadows.

"Hi Zatanna, how are you?" Diana said warmly, trying to smile as best she could under the circumstances.

"I haven't seen you in so long. I've just been working here and there, making sure my magic is up to date, having fun… the usual." Zatanna raised her eyebrow in surprise when she saw Wonder Woman's new attire. "But enough about me… what about you two? Does Mr. Tall Dark and Brooding need more relationship counseling? I see that Bruce's influence on you hasn't gone unnoticed."

Diana couldn't help but crack a small genuine smile. Every time she and Zatanna got together, talking about Bruce or the lack of his relationship skills with her always seemed to be the topic of choice. Normally, Diana always refrained from talking about Bruce with anyone, but Zatanna was different. For one, she knew Bruce well enough to understand him and his 'issues'. But she also loved to make fun of him, especially with him standing right in front of her. Zatanna was the only other person Diana knew who could actually get away with it. With all the help that Zatanna had given Bruce throughout the years, she definitely earned the privilege joke about him at his expense.

"Can we discuss that later? People are in trouble." Batman said flatly.

Zatanna's grin instantly faded as her concern took over. "Trouble? What kind of trouble?"

"Circe recruited Ares and resurrected Jason…" Both Diana and Zatanna saw Batman's fist clench tightly. "Using Jason… they captured everyone…"

Zatanna knew all about Bruce's past with Jason. It wasn't a pretty one… as she knew most of his storied past wasn't exactly filled with fun and loving memories. Knowing the severity of the situation, she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest, listening to the information that Batman gave her. The three of them went out into the alley, quickly jumped into the batmobile, and headed back to the cave.

"Wow… what happened in here?" Zatanna's jaw dropped as she stared at the crumpled up computer.

"Oh… just a result of a relapse in anger management Miss Zatanna." Alfred said as he was still cleaning up the mess that Bruce made. "Master Bruce, if you could be so kind to be careful with that one. It isn't as heavily armored as this one."

Batman ignored Alfred as he powered up the backup computer before sitting down and getting to work. Zatanna smirked while shaking her head as she leaned against the backup computer. "So what's the plan to find them this time?"

Batman sat back, placing his fist under his chin analyzing the information on the screen. "Find Jason… he'll lead us to everyone else."

"But how are you going to find him? He could be anywhere…" Diana rested her hands on Batman's shoulders, watching him replay his encounter with Jason on the screen.

"I know Jason better than he knows me. I'll find him… besides… Jason's not that bright to begin with." Batman sat up rewinding the footage again and listening carefully to Jason's words while scanning through all possible locations of his whereabouts.

"Ethiopia!" Batman instantly stood up, startling both Zatanna and Diana. "They're in Ethiopia. Let's go."

"What? How do you know they're in Ethiopia?" Diana asked as they followed Batman into the batwing.

"Because that's where he died… Where Robin died." Batman strapped himself in as both Zatanna and Diana looked at each other nervously. They were going back to where Batman's greatest failure took place. To where another Robin might find the same horrible fate that Jason met.

The warehouse was exactly like Batman remembered it. Made up of wood, painted brown with blue trimmings all covered in ice and frost. It was also around this time of day that Batman failed to reach him in time on that fateful day. Hovering silently over another warehouse approximately two hundred yards away, Batman programmed the autopilot system before climbing out of the batwing. Zatanna followed both Batman and Wonder Woman into the warehouse. It had been a long time since she last went on a mission with Batman. She didn't really like the sneaking around and staying within the shadows for cover, but she was good at it. Bruce trained Zatanna to be able to back him up when he used to drag her along on his missions a long time ago. They silently made their way inside and onto the catwalk. It was dark and quiet...

"_Something's not right…_" Batman's eyes widened as he quickly spun around to warn Diana and Zatanna. "GET O…" The light instantly turned on as all three of them were thrown against the wall by a powerful magical force.

"Well well... what do we have here? The pretty little Princess, her pointy-eared husband, and a second-rate witch?" Circe floated down to the center of the warehouse with a smirk on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Who are you calling second-rate!" Zatanna now impersonating Batman with a glare of her own picked up her top hat and angrily put it back on her head.

"YOU!" Diana furiously darted straight at Circe, aiming to knock her head off when something large and furry tackled her. A giant lion pinned her down, growing… Diana easily picked it up and threw it against the wall.

"Come my babies… protect mommy from that mean terrible woman." Three more lions circled around Wonder Woman as Circe's grin widened. "She hurt your dear friend Huntress… make her pay."

Diana's eyes widened in shock. Those lions were her friends… She quickly turned and looked at Batman and Zatanna. The four lions began circling the three of them, growling and snarling, waiting for an opening to pounce on them.

"Not so fast…" Ares floated down next to Circe with a smirk of his own. "I'm impressed Batman. I didn't think you would have been this quick to find us. I was planning on sending the boy back to Gotham to come get you."

"Ares! Hera help me, I'll have your head for this!" Diana clenched her fists in pure hatred for The God of War.

"You are in no position to make any threats Princess." Ares waved his hand as two giant magical stone hands grew out of the ground grabbing both Diana and Zatanna. Neither Diana nor Zatanna could move as the stone hands brought them in front of Ares and Circe. Ares quickly turned his attention to Batman. "Circe, restore his friends back into their normal forms."

Circe gave him a confused look. "What? What for?"

"Because… everyone should be fully aware and conscious of what is about to happen to the so-called Greek Champion Batman." Ares snapped his fingers and four more giant hands grew out of the floor grabbing hold of Batgirl, Oracle, The Huntress, and Black Canary as they transformed back into their original fully healed forms.

"Wha… what's going on?" Oracle shook her head to regain her focus.

"That witch Circe captured you, and then turned you all into lions to attack us when we came to save you." Diana said bitterly as she never stopped glaring at Circe.

The Huntress rolled her eyes. "Oh… well this is much better… some rescue."

"Shut up... You were the one who got captured in the first place." Zatanna snapped back.

Dinah glared at them in annoyance. "Will all of you shut up? Can't you tell that all of this was a trap to get Batman here?" The girls stopped bickering and turned to see Batman standing in the center, glaring at Ares.

"It doesn't take a God to know what you're thinking about." Ares snapped his fingers one more time as Robin and Nightwing appeared across the room. Their mouths were taped shut while their arms were individually bound to magical restraints above their heads with magical spears slowly digging into their spines.

"No it doesn't… it just takes someone who can think like Batman." Jason came out of the shadows dressed in his own Robin suit. No one said anything as everyone's attention was on Batman and Jason.

Seeing Batman glare angrily into his eyes, Jason's smirked as he stood between Tim and Dick. "Do I sense that you feel betrayed Bruce?" The smirk on Jason's face quickly vanished as anger and hatred filled his emotions. "GOOD! Now you know how I felt when you allowed The Joker to kill me. And now… one of my so-called brothers will understand my pain." Jason pointed to both Dick and Tim. "Just like me… one of them will pay the ultimate price for your failure and betrayal. Another Robin dies tonight! Tonight we find out who is daddy's favorite son… Tonight everyone will know that you… Bruce… are nothing but a failure!"

All the member of the batclan couldn't believe what they just heard. They all knew about what happened to Jason and how hard Bruce took it. But this was easily going to top that and everything else Bruce had gone though in his life. Not only does he have to choose which of his adoptive sons will die, but that the only son he failed to save was the one forcing him to choose. And there was nothing any of them could do about it except to helplessly watch the events unfold without the slightest bit of hope.

"_No! Not like this! Anything but this!_" Diana heart shattered into pieces knowing what was happening to Bruce. She could feel his pain. To allow one to die because of his failure to save another was killing him. That no matter what happens, Bruce was going to lose. Diana was being forced to helplessly watch Bruce, her husband, her whole world suffer a tremendous amount of pain that no one should ever feel. It was just hours ago that she vowed to him that she would always be there help him in his time of need. That she wouldn't allow him to fail. But here Bruce stood. He was going to fail another Robin. Diana was going to fail him and there was nothing she could do about it.

Circe saw the look of grief and heartache on Diana's face as her grin grew ear to ear. "Look at the poor Princess… I can't imagine it getting any better than this."

"Excellent" Ares looked on with a satisfied smile of his own.

Batman glared at the witch and The God of War as he realized the full extent of the ramifications in which his pain and suffering were meant to do. "Have you figured it out Batman?" Ares crossed his arms as he grinned, knowing that their schemes were moments away from reaching the sweet taste of fruition.

Batman narrowed his eyes as he turned to Jason. "Obviously… Both of you stole Jason's body, broke into one of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits to resurrect him, restored his sanity, and convinced him to take his vengeance on what he believes to be betrayal."

"You really are The World's Greatest Detective aren't you Batman?" Circe said seductively. "Too bad you decided to have the Princess as your lover… you and I would've had so much fun."

Diana's anger blew past its limits as she tried to free herself with all her might. "DAMN YOU WITCH!" She desperately wanted to bash in Circe's head for even thinking about her husband.

"My my… she has quite a temper… that's not a very good trait for a wife to have… or do you like it when she gets feisty…" Circe gave Batman a mischievous grin as she winked at him.

Ares hovered over to Diana and lifted her chin up with his finger so that she looked into his eyes. "This all could have been avoided Amazon, if you had only agreed to share my bed instead of his." Diana defiantly snapped her head away in disgust. Just hearing those words made her want to vomit as Batman clenched his fists with such anger that the Kevlar armor began to crack. The smirk on Ares' face disappeared as he grabbed Diana's face and forced her to look back at him. "Your idiotic decision to choose this pitiful man as your lover makes me sick. What pisses me off more is that I can't even have you as my own because of my mother's stupid blessing…" Diana quickly thanked Hera for what she believed to be, even before this predicament, the greatest gift the both of them received on Mt. Olympus. "…unless I receive the proper consent from the both of you to be your lover…" Ares turned to face Batman with an insidious grin on his face. "Agree to give her to me Batman, and the rest can go."

"Not a chance in hell" Batman said instantly as his white screened eyes narrowed into tiny white slits. Diana's eyes quickly snapped to her husband, yearning to be in his arms.

Ares mockingly shook his head in disappointment before turning back to Wonder Woman. "Just so you know Amazon, everything that happens here is entirely your fault." Ares loved every second of the dilemma he placed both Batman and Wonder Woman in. "If that's your decision Batman, then the choice is yours. Who will it be? No one can supplant the original Robin… or can this current one do what the first never did? It seems to me that all you really do is to simply replace one with another, just like you did with Jason. Maybe none of them matter all that much to you."

Batman took a deep breath "I cannot… will not choose between any of them. Each one means as much to me as the others. I would rather die than have anyone here suffer that fate. You say I'm not worthy of her love… your parents say different. I challenge you to a duel to prove my worth. If I win, everyone is freed. If you win, I die."

Diana's eyes widened in shock. A part of her told herself that she could not lose Bruce again. But another part, the part connected to Bruce, told her that she would be fine. That if it meant saving everyone in this room, himself included, that it was the right thing to do. By sacrificing himself, it would save him from a fate worse than death… save him from failing to save another Robin, from choosing which had to die. Diana's heart sank, she knew it was currently the best possible way out of this, but that didn't make her heart feel any better.

"And the Amazon is mine to do with as I please." Ares' smirk grew into a giant grin.

"I'll never agree to that" Batman stated firmly in his cold unnerving tone.

Ares crossed his arms over his chest. "Then we don't have a deal."

Batman started to crack his knuckles. "What's the matter? Are you afraid that you'll lose to someone as pitiful and as pathetic as me in a fight?"

"_What is he doing! What is he up to? DAMN IT!_" Jason snapped his head towards Ares as he saw that he was seriously considering it. "NO! This is MY vengeance to execute! Not yours! I will not let you give him a way out! He must live with this shameful failure for the rest of his life!"

"Silence you pathetic mortal! How dare you talk to a God in that manner! You have outlived your usefulness in my plans." Irritated, Ares gave him a disgusted look.

"Don't you get it Jason? He used you to get to me so that he could complete his revenge on Wonder Woman." Batman pointed to both Circe and Ares. "They wanted to bring upon her, a fate worse than death. This has nothing to do with us… they played you for a fool."

"NO! Liar! Shut up!" Jason furiously turned towards Ares. "He's MINE you stupid…"

"ENOUGH!" Ares cut Jason off as he sent a blast of light at him, stripping him of his sanity and the powers that The God of War placed upon him.

Everyone watched on in horror as Jason lost control of his body, his arms and legs violently lashing about as he screamed irrationally. Hunched over, Jason placed his hands on the temples of his head trying to regain control of himself. He turned around facing Batman and the others with a crazed insane look on his face. His eyes were wide and intense as he was heavily breathing out of his mouth while drool dripped down onto the floor.

"JASON!" Batman reached his arm out, but Jason saw Ares and instantly leaped towards him roaring with rage. With a simple wave of his hand, Ares sent Jason blasting through the roof of the warehouse and out somewhere into the cold frozen land. Despite what Jason had put him through, Bruce still cared for him, he was still his son. Anger began boiling through his veins as he clenched his fists so tight that the force he exerted shattered the already cracked Kevlar armor on his gauntlets.

Ares glanced at Wonder Woman once more before turning back to Batman. "I accept your pitiful challenge. I will prove to everyone just how pathetic you really are. The Amazon will watch as I destroy you and decimate your so-called family one by one. It will be then, that she realizes her obvious mistake in choosing such a weak and unworthy man as her lover." Ares motioned to Diana as he floated down to the ground preparing to dual The Dark Knight. A supremely confident smile appeared on his face, believing that Batman had just sealed his own fate along with the batclan and, most importantly, Diana's.


	7. The Wrath of a God

**A/N: Hi Guys! I hope you like this chapter, the overall mood of this story really gets kicked up a notch. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!**

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><p><strong>The Wrath of a God<strong>

"Challenging The God of War to a fight? Your husband must have lost it Princess…" Circe walked up to Diana knowing all of this was tormenting her like nothing else could ever do.

"Batman!" Ignoring Circe's taunts, Diana yelled at Bruce, hoping he was coming up with a way to get out of this. "Remember, he's a God! You won't be able to hurt him at all."

Batman quickly thought of a way to even the playing field. He just hoped that Ares would take the bait. "You're right Princess… we both know that Ares is too much of a coward to come down to the level of a Greek Champion to fight me."

"Scared of someone as frail and pathetic as you? Even lowering myself to your level, my fighting abilities are far superior and can't be matched. You'll pay dearly for your ignorance when I force the Amazon to watch me bathe in your blood." A bright white light surrounded Ares as he powered down to Batman's level.

"Uhhh… has he lost it? He knows he's still fighting a God right…" The Huntress whispered over to Zatanna and Black Canary as they looked on.

"I don't think it matters to him anymore… he'd rather die trying to save all of our lives than choose between the two." Zatanna tilted her head towards Robin and Nightwing. "He would have to live the rest of his life with that regrettable decision staring him in the face."

"Damn… that Ares guy really wants Diana… gross… You'd think a God would at least make himself look hot if he's trying to attract a woman." Oracle motioned as if she were about to puke.

"Who knew there would be a downside to being the most beautiful woman on the planet? Can you imagine her serving that jackass for the rest of her life?" Helena stuck her tongue out in disgust.

Zatanna looked over at Diana as she watched Batman and Ares continue to fight each other. "She's immortal too… should have to put up with him for an eternity…"

"Seriously… We've got to stop talking about this guy being with Diana or I'm going to hurl." Black Canary took a deep breath, trying to control her nausea.

Helena sighed as she saw Ares winning the fight. "We're doomed aren't we? I never thought we'd go out like this…"

"Well… IF I had to choose one person to save me under the most strenuous of circumstances like this, there wouldn't be anyone else I'd rather have out there than him." Black Canary winced when she saw Batman take a shot to the head.

A smirk quickly formed on The Huntress' face. "Oh really? Does Ollie know that? I'm sure that it would be a huge blow to his ego if he found out."

The Black Canary's eyes narrowed as she glared at The Huntress. "No he doesn't, and I tend to keep it that way. Besides… who would you rather have out there saving your ass? The Question or Batman?" Helena tried to say she'd prefer her boyfriend, but nothing came out of her mouth. Dinah had a point… Bruce was the best, it wasn't even close. Black Canary smirked back as she saw Helena's disappear. "I thought so."

Zatanna couldn't help but grin. "Wow… I didn't know he had THAT kind of an affect on the both of you."

"SHUT UP! You tell anyone this and we'll kill you!" Both Dinah and Helena yelled at Zatanna simultaneously.

"_Damn it…why am I letting him control this fight? I've got to focus…_" Batman stopped and regained his composure as he took a deep breath.

"Is this really who you decided to mate with Princess? I can't believe this pathetic man is a Greek Champion, much less a hero of the Earth." Ares stood confidently as he had yet to break a sweat in his fight with Batman.

"Hmmm… You know Princess… your pointy-eared husband does seem to have lost a step. I remember him being a much better fighter than this. Maybe he needs a true woman like me to get back to his full potential." Circe watched Batman with a seductive smile as she leaned on the giant stone hand holding Diana in place.

"If you so much as touch him I'll rip your limbs off one by one and feed you to Cerberus!" Diana roared at Circe while still trying desperately to free herself.

Batman stood up, hidden within his cape as he glared at Ares. "_His techniques…same as Diana's before she came to me. He mastered them and is better than Diana was, obviously…But like Diana back then, his limited knowledge of techniques will be his down fall…_"

Ares began to walk up to Batman triumphantly. "What's the matter Batman? Admitting defeat already? Has it sunk in that no one can defeat The God of War in hand to hand combat?"

"Except me" Batman stated flatly, much to the surprise of Ares. "_No more mistakes…focus…"_

"What! You arrogant imbecile! I'll destroy you!" Having his anger take control, Ares charged at Batman. Batman quickly dodged Ares' attacks and punched him in the left temple, knocking him back in disbelief. "How dare you strike a God! I'll see to it that you spend all eternity suffering at my hands!" Ares came at Batman again trying to hit him with a combination of kicks and punches. Batman quickly dodged and countered his attacks and toppled Ares with a combo of his own, connecting with a series of hits to the abdomen, ribs, and face. He was manhandling The God of War. No one in the room could believe what they were seeing as all of their jaws dropped in amazement.

Ares was fuming. No one had ever embarrassed him like Batman had just done. Every possible way of torturing Batman was running through his mind as he stared down his adversary. Suddenly Ares' eyes widened in realization as his anger quickly subsided. "Impressive Batman… having my anger get the best of me. But now this is where it ends for you."

Ares approached Batman with a sense of calm and focus as he attacked. The two fought to what looked like a draw. Neither landing many direct hits on the other… All of Ares' attributes were better than Batman's, he was quicker, stronger, and his endurance was limitless. But it was Batman's superior knowledge of various fighting techniques that allowed him to counter and avoid most of Ares' attacks. The longer the fight went on, the more frustrated Ares got. He was a God, and no one should been giving a God this much trouble, even if he did lower himself to that of a Greek Champion. Batman knew that his endurance wasn't limitless as the fight slowly began to take its toll on his body. He refused to show any sign of fatigue by controlling his breathing rate. Sensing the frustration building within Ares, Batman continued to fight as he waited for him to make a mistake and give Batman the right opportunity to strike.

Batman watched Ares' eyes widen for an instant as if he suddenly realized something. He dropped his guard as he stood up while crossing his arms over his chest with a smirk on his face. Batman continued to hold his guard up just incase Ares was planning to trick him. "I now realize that I have been going about this all wrong in order to make her mine. Everything you have done so far has been with honor, which has only reinforced and increased her faith and love for you. Normally, I would just kill you here and now for giving me such a humiliation… but I see that I must do much more than cause you unbearable pain." The smirk on his face widened into a grin. "She WILL be mine Batman… It's only a matter of time." Ares floated back into the air as he regained his godly powers, emitting a bright yellow light in the process. "As The God of War, I declare this duel a draw. And because I am a God, I have the power to determine the ramifications of what a draw entails… As much joy as it would bring me to force you to choose… I believe you deserve a reward for being such a skilled warrior as you are."

Ares snapped his fingers as Batman instantly looked over to both Dick and Tim. Their eyes widened in horror as the spears shot through their spines and came bursting out of their chests, leaving nothing but blood pouring down onto the floor. "NO!" Batman couldn't believe what he was witnessing. "NIGHTWING! ROBIN!" Batman ran to their bodies and collapsed to his knees. They were gone. Dead. He failed to save either of them. The entire batclan was speechless. There wasn't anything they could say as Oracle cried uncontrollably, screaming for Nightwing. Batgirl looked at both of her brothers' dead bodies in a traumatized trance. Zatanna, The Huntress, and Black Canary could only drop their jaws in shock, seeing both of boys' heads hanging lifelessly with the look of horror cemented on their faces. Everyone watched the poles of the spears that were still embedded within the boys' chests drip blood down to their feet. The bloodstained arrowheads were taunting them, as if they were giving everyone in the room the middle finger. Diana's whole world was destroyed as she watched her husband kneel down in front of her adoptive sons' giant pool of blood, looking at their dead bodies. She knew Bruce's mind was completely rattled and that his spirit was broken. If he lost control of himself for the first time back when they returned to the cave to find everyone missing, he was definitely going to lose control now. And this time, she feared he wouldn't come back.

"_Dick… Tim… NO…not like this…NOT like this!_" Batman gritted his teeth in pure anger.

"And because I know how much pain this building has brought upon Batman… how about we blow this entire building up? I'm not that cruel Princess… I'll give you… oh… a few minutes to say goodbye to everyone." Circe gave Diana one last grin as he snapped her fingers, transforming everyone except her and Batman into bats. Before magically disappearing with Ares, she disintegrated the giant stone hands and mockingly waved goodbye.

Diana quickly flew to Batman. "Bruce! We have to get everyone out! The building is going to blow!" He didn't respond as she continued to shake him. "Bruce, we will survive but the others won't! Bruce! We have to save them!"

Realizing Diana was right Batman shook his head, regaining his awareness of what was happening. He quickly spun around as he took out an explosive bat-a-rang with his left hand and threw it at the wall, creating a giant hole for them to escape. After the wall crumbed to the ground, he threw a few sonar bat-a-rangs as far as he could with his right hand through the giant hole. While counting to make sure that all five bats flew out to the sonar bat-a-rangs, he grabbed Nightwing's body as Diana grabbed Robin's, and escaped just before the bombs went off. The explosion sent them tumbling into the cold frozen grass while the warehouse debris littered the area. Batman and Wonder Woman pulled themselves up and checked to see of any further damages had been done to the boys' bodies. Batman took out the batwing's remote control and had it land next to them. Diana placed the two bodies in the batwing while Batman activated another sonar bat-a-rang and placed it on Tim's lap. He shut off the others he threw out earlier to get the bats to fly into the cockpit. Closing the canopy and sealing the bats in, he enabled the autopilot, sending it back to the cave on autopilot as he and Diana flew behind it together.

"Bruce, please don't do this to yourself!" Diana watched him stare at the two dead bodies on the medical tables in silence. Batman didn't move since they returned to the cave and placed the bats in a special holding cell.

"I agree with Mistress Diana, Master Bruce… standing there will not help bring them back. And I do believe you must find a way to return the others back into their original selves." Alfred said with a heavy heart. He always feared the possibility that one day, any one of them could return home dead. He always forced himself to disregard that thought each night during their patrols, but it never made it easier.

"I failed them." Batman walked over to the armory section of the batcave to restock his supplies. "_I must stay focused. I can't allow my anger to take control. I still have to find a way to restore the rest of them on my own. No one will ever suffer because of me again._"

The way Bruce was handling the situation was a lot better than Diana had expected. He didn't destroy the cave or heavily brood… yet… "Bruce…" She slowly followed him into the armory. "What are we going to do?"

"I failed them. They're my responsibility, not yours." Bruce spat out coldly as he finished restocking and turned past Diana, leaving her in the armory.

"_OH HELL NO! He's not going to kick me out and do this alone!_" Diana stormed up to Bruce and spun him around to face her. Meeting his glare with one of her own, she repeatedly poked him hard on his chest with her index finger as she spoke. "You're NOT doing this on your own Bruce. They're my family too. Circe and Ares are MY enemies or have you forgotten?"

"They're mine to protect, not yours." Batman cut her off. "And I alone will suffer the consequences of my failures…"

"You thickheaded, stubborn, MORON!" Diana threw her arms up in the air in frustration. "The whole point of this was to get their revenge on ME, not you."

Batman's eyes narrowed "Exactly. They were getting to you through me. There's nothing left that they can take away to cause me pain except… you. You're all I have left, and I'm NOT going to lose you. I have failed everyone… Jason, Dick, Tim… they all died because of me. I will NOT allow you to die because of my failures."

Diana cut him off before he could continue "If that's how you see it then I failed you. The instant you failed, I failed. It's my responsibility to protect you from any kind of pain and suffering… physical and emotional. And I will do whatever it takes to atone for my failures, and that includes helping you to do the same for yours."

"You were never given that responsibility." Bruce stated flatly without any hint of emotion.

Diana glared at him as she took her wedding ring out of her belt's newly installed secrete compartment and held it up to Bruce's face. "You gave me that responsibility when you gave me THIS. And it's a responsibility I'll never relinquish or take lightly." She placed the ring exactly where it belonged, on her left ring finger. "We share everything Bruce. Your failures are now mine, as mine are yours. WE will make Circe and Ares pay for their crimes, and WE will restore our family back to normal…" Diana slowly pulled of his cowl as she cupped her right hand on his cheek. "You and I have never failed together, and I won't allow us to start now."

Bruce looked into her beautiful bright pearly eyes as he took a deep breath, he knew she was right. She was always right when it came to their relationship issues… not that he liked to admit it… "You know you're supposed to wear that ring at all times…"

Diana smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "But how many rings did I break during combat?"

Bruce chuckled as he thought about it. "Enough times to make the jeweler set for life."


	8. An Old Friend

**A/N: **I decided to create a character of my own in this story. I hope you guys don't mind. I tried to make it so that he ties into Bruce's past pretty well. I also plan to have Zee (Since she is one of my absolute favorites!) be more involved with the story. Let me know what you guys think!

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><p><strong>An Old Friend<strong>

"Shall I ask mother to aid us in tracking down that witch?" From behind, Diana placed her hands on Bruce's shoulders as he was sitting in his chair thinking about their next move.

"Pardon me Master Bruce, Mistress Diana… but there's something I believe that requires your attention." Alfred quickly walked up to the computer console and turned on the television monitor.

"Welcome to J-TV!" Batman's eyes narrowed with anger the instant that unmistakable laugh rang through the speakers. The Joker was broadcasting within Arhkam as Two Face, Harley, and The Riddler were seen in the background. "Joker here! And what a show we have for you lucky folks in Gotham. Tonight and tonight only, you get see the inmates run the asylum. As the new warden of this dump, I've decided to make a few changes…" Most of the asylum was torn down from Bane's jailbreak while the rest was 'decorated' with green and purple graffiti.

Joker grabbed a tied up security guard from Harley. "What do you think of Arkham's new makeover?" The guard shook his head in fear as Joker frowned. "Everyone is a critic…" The Joker sprayed the guard with laughing gas as he turned back to the camera grinning. "Speaking of critics… there are always those whose approval I never seem to get…" The video footage switched to an unrecognizable dark room that had The Mayor of Gotham, The Warden of Arkham, and Commissioner Gordon strapped down in electric chairs with The Scarecrow and The Mad Hatter torturing them with hallucinations of their worst fears.

The Joker's face reappeared on the screen. "Hmm… I wanted them to die with a smile on their faces… oh well… on to more exciting matters. What we want is simple… we want our dear Dark Knight, that's it! No bird boy tag along or the Wonder bimbo flying by. Just the Bat himself, in Arkham. Hell… a man running around at night dressed like a bat deserves to be locked up in here with us anyways!" The Joker began laughing again before continuing. "It's simple, if the dark and scary Batman doesn't turn himself in to the new Arkham authorities by midnight, we can say goodbye to three of Gotham's finest!" The Joker continued to laugh as the video footage cut out.

Batman began replaying the footage for any further clues that he may have missed. "I lose focus on Gotham for a few days and it turns into hell…"

"Where do you think they're keeping The Commissioner, Warden, and The Mayor?" Diana stood beside Batman as they both took a closer look at the unrecognizable room.

"Where is she!" Diana's eyes widened with shock as she spun around to see a man standing directly behind them with his arms folded across his chest. It completely surprised her that someone could easily sneak up on her without her knowing – even Bruce couldn't do that anymore. The man looked like some type of ninja. He was completely covered in a deep dark navy blue suit with a long black staff strapped to his back. He was an inch or two shorter than Bruce but his body was built the same way. Even in the light, it was very difficult to see his features. The suit's design seemed to be similar to Batman's but with noticeable differences. The man wore a mask that covered his entire face while having blood red screened eyes instead of white ones like Batman's. He didn't possess a cape or a belt, and his only weapon seemed to be that stick on his back.

"Since when did you start speaking behind the mask?" Bruce remained focused on the screen as Diana shifted her sights repeatedly between her husband and this apparent ally.

The man angrily took off his mask before speaking through his gritted teeth. "Where is she Bruce!" The man was of Asian descent with short black hair and dark brown eyes. His glare easily rivaled Bruce's as Diana felt nothing but anger and darkness from him.

"Can't say that I'm surprised you showed up…" Batman, still focused on the screen, pointed to the special cage that the batclan was in. "A powerful sorceress named Circe teamed up with The God of War, Ares… together they resurrected Jason, killed both Dick and Tim, and turned Zatanna, Barbra, Cassandra, Dinah, and Helena into bats."

Diana watched the man look over to the cage and clenched his fists in anger. "Well, any friend of Bruce is a friend of mine. You may call me Diana."

Finally acknowledging her presence, he looked back and glared at her. "I know who you are."

Becoming irritated with this man's rude and bitter attitude, Diana crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at him. "And you are…"

"A ghost…" The man said coldly as he walked next to Batman and began typing on the computer console. "This is all the background information you have on Circe?" It was one thing for this 'Ghost' to know Bruce well enough to actually call him Bruce while under the Batman persona, but another to actually know how to use his equipment… not to mention using it without asking. The way he was talking to Bruce was an eye-opener as well. This man had absolutely no fear of Bruce, and spoke as if he were demanding things from Bruce. No one has ever talked to Bruce like this. Not even Alfred, Dick or she herself.

"Yes… but now that you're here, I need you in Gotham to track down and save The Commissioner, The Warden, and The Mayor. Diana will search for Circe and Ares." Bruce spun his chair to face the man as Diana came to Bruce's side and leaned against the chair with her hip.

The man glared at Bruce, then shifted his eyes at Diana before returning his attention back to Bruce. "No. I will find that witch. Have your wife deal with Gotham."

Batman's eyes narrowed as Diana felt the tension rising between the two men. "You're the best at what you do. I need you to find and save them for me, and then meet me in Arkham as I deal with The Joker and the rest of them. Diana will take care of Circe. Her resistance to magic will…"

"Gotham is NOT my priority, SHE is! I will find that witch faster than her!" The man furiously pointed at Diana before continuing. "I'm not going to waste anymore time. I WILL find her! But if what you say is true… I'll contact you when I find the witch."

Just as the man was about to turn to leave, Batman stood up. "Colby stop!" Batman waited until the man paused and turned his head to glare at him before continuing. "Do you trust me?"

Colby turned his entire body to face Bruce. "Trust is never an issue with you…"

"Then continue to trust me now… Diana will find Circe, and WE will take care of Gotham." Batman motioned to Diana. "She's found and defeated her before."

Colby looked at Diana as if he was unimpressed. "She's been trained?"

Diana glared back at him, now angry that this man was questioning her skills while Batman nodded his head. "She's good… very good."

Colby turned his focus back to Bruce. "Trained properly?"

"Yes…" Batman said flatly.

This man was seriously getting on Diana's nerves. "_Who does this man think he is? How can Bruce allow this guy to talk to him like that?_" Diana stepped closer to the man, clenching her fists. "If you want to challenge my skills and abilities… I'm more than willing to show you what I'm capable of…" Bruce quickly stepped next to her, motioning to her to not to continue in the conversation.

Colby shifted his glare from Diana back over to Bruce. "Is she your equal?"

"No. But she's close… very close." Batman said while making sure Diana didn't take another step forward.

Bruce never openly stated how good Diana was as a trained fighter before. It made her proud that Bruce complemented her skills, saying that she was almost as good as he was. "_If this man knows Bruce at all…then he should know that Bruce doesn't give out complements like that to just anyone._"

Colby nodded "Very well… I'll aid you in your quest to save Gotham. I'll contact you when I've found them and wait for your signal." He then turned to Diana and said flatly "You must train harder if you wish to challenge me."

Diana's eyes widened with shock. "_Does this arrogant bastard think he's better than me? Better than Bruce?_" Diana angrily turned towards Batman. "Who does he think he is?" Diana looked back to where the man was standing only to realize that he was gone. "WHAT? Where did he… How did he?" Diana couldn't believe how quickly he vanished. She didn't hear or feel any change in the air. He didn't trigger any of her senses. Even Bruce couldn't leave like that without her noticing something. "Who is he?"

Batman sat back down in his chair and faced Diana. "He's known as The Cerebral Assassin. He was separated from his parents when he was an infant. Master Kirgi found him and took him in to train him to become The World's Greatest Assassin. I trained with him for years before he left after mastering everything Master Kirgi had to offer him. He went on to train with Lady Shiva and became one of the few who could actually defeat her and live to talk about it. He was easily the best … and still is the best. He never speaks when he works, he believes it draws too much attention and wastes time. He's the reason why Cassandra doesn't speak. She was trained to be better than him… but as good as she is, she never came close."

"Did you know he was behind us?" Diana asked.

"No. Not until he spoke. He's the only one that I can't sense or track down." Batman said flatly.

Diana raised her eyebrow in curiosity, it wasn't everyday that Bruce would admit that someone could elude him or actually be better than him. "So is The Cerebral Assassin better than you?"

Batman narrowed his eyes. "I said he was the best at what he does, NOT at what I do. He is the best fighter and the best at keeping himself hidden from unwanted attention… as you just witnessed. He refused to take on any assassination job until he proved to himself that he was the best fighter in the world. He had defeated everyone worth fighting, myself included. But because we haven't fought together since he left Master Kirgi's, he wanted to see how far I came along before declaring himself as the best. He came to me asking for a match… because it was him, I accepted."

"And you beat him of course." Diana placed her hands on her hips as she smirked confidently.

"Not exactly…" Diana's smirk quickly faded as Batman continued. "Before the match could get underway, The Joker and several other Arkham inmates were causing chaos in Gotham. I had him help me defeat them and it was then that he saw the world as I saw it. He saw the darkness of the world and decided to join my cause to rid the streets of people like The Joker. He then chose to leave The League of Assassins with my help, and became my first ally."

"But you can beat him right?" Diana wondered just how good this man really was.

"Based on pure skill, fighting ability, and technique… No." Diana's jaw dropped with surprise. She couldn't believe that Colby, someone she had never heard of until now, is really that good. "But if I truly had to stop him… I'd win."

"I see… But if he never speaks, how were you able to team up with him?" Diana said as she thought about it. Communication within the batclan was extremely important.

Bruce paused for a moment, quickly remembering the time they spent growing up and training together for all those years. "Because we both knew how the other thinks. He didn't stay for very long though. He became curious about the world's society and wanted to live a normal life. He moved out west to San Francisco and became one of the world's most respected businessmen and engineers. He easily earned master degrees in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering along with a MBA and a CPA. He's the president and CEO of both of his companies, CL Consultants and Colbex Enterprises. Wayne Enterprises frequently agrees to billion dollar deals with both of them whenever possible. Colby is one of the few honest successful businessmen left on this planet."

Diana's smirk reappeared as she titled her head, looking a Bruce. "Smart, rich, skilled, arrogant, and handsome… sounds a lot like someone I know." Bruce glared at her before turning to get back to work on the computer.

"So why did he tell me he was a ghost?" Diana leaned against the console as Bruce began typing.

"When he puts on the mask to 'work', he moves so quickly and quietly that he appears and disappears as if he were a ghost. Zatanna didn't like him being referred to as an assassin, so she called him a ghost a while back… it sort of stuck ever since. He doesn't care for it, but responds to either name." Batman rested his head on his fist, thinking of a way to stop The Joker and the inmates of Arkham.

Diana's eyes widened in realization as a giant grin appeared on her face. "When he said 'Where is she' he was talking about Zatanna wasn't he?" Diana assumed that he was initially referring to Circe and that Batman had called for his assistance. But after thinking about it, she saw that he was furious about Zatanna being turned into a bat. He made returning her safely back to normal his only priority.

Batman cursed himself silently for mentioning Zatanna's name. "Yes... they are good friends."

Diana looked over to the bat that used to be Zatanna before turning back to Bruce. "Good friends like you and Zee? Or good friends like you and me?" Knowing that Bruce's non-answer meant that it was the latter, she jumped up in excitement. "How long!"

Bruce smacked himself on the forehead. This was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now. He still had to find a way to stop the inmates of Arhkam, find Circe and Ares, return the batclan back to normal, find out what happened to Jason, and lastly, continue to deal with the deaths of Nightwing and Robin. "A little under a year ago."

Diana wanted to know everything. "Really? When did you know? How did you know?"

Bruce rolled his eyes, wishing he hadn't said anything. "A week or two after."

"And you didn't tell me!" Diana yelled as she punched Bruce on the shoulder.

"It wasn't my place to tell you, besides why ruin Zatanna's surprise when she does decide to tell you." Batman said while now trying to think of a way to change the subject.

"How did you find out?" Diana was growing inpatient as she tapped her foot while waiting for Bruce to tell her everything that she wanted to know. "_I am going to have a very long talk with Zee once we get her back to normal._"

"I make it my business to know." Batman stated flatly as an alert window popped up on the computer screen. "It's him! He's found The Commissioner and the others! We need to move now." Batman turned to Diana. "Find Circe as best you can. I agree that you should go to your mother for extra support and get the equipment you need."

"Wow… he works fast! Ok. I'll go to the embassy to get Donna before I see mother. I think it will be better two on two." Diana typed in the command on the computer to teleport herself back to the league's embassy.

"Agreed, just remember to keep this in small circles… very small circles. I'll stay in contact." Batman said before jumping into the batmobile.

"Be careful Bruce…" Diana watched him nod at her words before taking off.

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><p><strong>AN:** Yea so since Zee can't be with Bruce, I decided why not let her with a guy that's almost a Batman clone! Of course I had to make him somewhat different, and I think this relationship will be a fun one.


	9. The Party at Arkham

**A/N: **I have a really good idea of where I'm going to go with this. Thanks for your reviews! I'll definitely keep them in mind when continuing on with the story. I hope you enjoy this one, and please let me know what you think.

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><p><strong>The Party at Arkham<strong>

Materializing on the teleportation platform in the embassy, Diana immediately went straight for the main control station in the embassy's central hub. She flew up to the control console where J'onn and Mr. Terrific were monitoring the league's activates.

"It's good to see you Diana. It's been a while since you last came to visit the embassy." J'onn smiled warmly to his good friend, but felt something was bothering her.

Diana returned the warm smile as best she could. "Thank you J'onn. I promise to come by more often. It's just been really hectic in Gotham lately." Diana quickly turned to Mr. Terrific. "Mr. Terrific, can I use the announcement speaker to contact Donna?"

Mr. Terrific moved aside, allowing Diana access to the terminal. "Of course Wonder Woman."

"Donna… It's Diana. Meet me at the main control station in the central hub immediately." Her voice rang throughout the speakers within the embassy.

"Is everything alright Diana? I sense a great deal of suffering within the both of you…" J'onn asked with great concern for both of his friends.

Diana sighed as she closed her eyes before turning back towards J'onn. "So much has happened in the past few days J'onn… It seems Batman will always be cursed to live with nothing but pain and despair, no matter how hard the both of us try to create a happy life together."

"Hey Diana! How's it going? Why didn't you tell us that you were coming to visit?" Flash grinned as he ran up to Diana followed by Green Lantern, Shayera, and Superman.

"Yea Diana it's been a while… what's going on in Gotham? I heard there was a jailbreak in Arkham. Is Batman alright?" Superman asked as he saw the stressful look on her face.

"You look pissed… need any help kicking some butt?" Shayera smirked as she patted her mace.

"_Damn it! Where is Donna!_" Diana took a breath trying to calm herself down from all the irritating questions her friends kept bombarding her with. She saw Donna fly up to the station with a puzzled look on her face. "Donna!" Diana flew to her younger sister before turning back to her friends. "I'm sorry but I can't answer your questions now. Please stay out of Gotham." Diana took off towards the jet hanger with Donna following close behind her as the rest of them looked on wondering what just happened.

Flash scratched his head as he watched Diana fly away. "Did she just tell us to…"

"Yup" Green Lantern sighed while shaking his head.

"Is it just me or is Diana becoming more like Bats everyday?" Flash crossed his arms over his chest in disappointment.

"Well you know what they say… When two people live together long enough, they start acting like each other." Green Lantern smirked as he looked back at Flash.

Superman leaned against the console with the palms of his hands face down. "Yea… they really are the best thing to happen to each other. I just wish they would let us help them every once in a while."

"I fear that something terrible has happened to Batman… I felt the pain and stress that's being placed on her. It is like nothing I've ever felt from her before." J'onn watched Diana and Donna fly out of the jet hanger in a Javelin on the monitor screen.

Donna knew that Diana was very upset as she piloted the jet out of the embassy. "So what's up Di? Is everything ok? Where are we going?"

Diana sighed as she looked at Donna. Diana knew that Dick and Donna were good friends ever since they teamed up as members of The Teen Titans. Donna wasn't going to like what she was about to hear. "We're going to see mother and ask for the weapons required to take down Circe and Ares." Diana took a deep breath before continuing. "Donna… Ares and Circe teamed up to get to me through Bruce. They resurrected one of his former Robins to torment him… then they killed Dick and Tim…"

Donna choked on her own saliva in shock. She couldn't believe what she just heard. "WHAT! NO!" Donna's eyes widened with rage as anger boiled throughout her veins. "Nightwing… I'll kill that witch!"

"Join the club…" Diana spat out bitterly. "Circe then turned Batgirl, Oracle, Zatanna, Black Canary, and The Huntress into bats. We have to save them and make that witch and that idiotic God pay for what they've done." Diana gripped the controls too hard, crushing them as she spoke.

Donna closed her eyes and tilted her head back, trying to control her emotions as best she could. "Tell me everything…" Diana started from the beginning and told Donna everything that happened as they flew towards their mother in the Themyscira.

"Yo Bats… what's your plan to get The Commissioner and the rest of them out of harms way and deal with the clown and his goons in Arkham?" Detective Harvey Bullock twirled his gun as Batman jumped out of the batmobile and landed next to him.

"Commissioner Gordon, The Warden, and The Mayor will be safe." Batman looked at the guards hiding behind the cop cars and pointing their guns in the direction of the only bridge leading into Arkham Island.

"If you say so… We got all of Gotham's units surrounding the island while the S.W.A.T. team is guarding the entrance. No one in or out on our watch." Bullock stuck a toothpick in his mouth and began to chew on it.

Batman took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the perimeter of the island. "How many hostages are on the island?"

"About fifty… oh and just so you know… The Joker drugged up all his goons from Blackgate Prison with that Titan formula again. Except this time the goons are consciously aware of what is going on and can control their own actions." Bullock flicked his toothpick onto the street.

"I know… they're not a concern." Batman remembered the last time The Joker used the Titan formula. It was a serum that transformed anyone into a giant muscle bound freak like Bane. Before, Batman had to maneuver around them with precision to avoid getting clobbered and torn apart. But now, none of them could match up to his super strength. "Tell everyone to stay off the island until I clear it out."

Detective Bullock watched Batman walk onto the bridge towards the asylum alone. "_He really is crazy to go in there…_"

"Diana! Donna! My daughters! It's been too long!" Queen Hippolyta reached out and hugged her daughters. After hugging Diana, Queen Hippolyta noticed how upset she was. "My little sun and stars… what has you so distraught? Did HE do something to offend you?"

Startled by the tone of her mother's voice, Diana quickly shook her head. "No mother, Bruce has and will always honor me with his love." Diana smiled warmly. Thinking about the love she shared with Bruce always made her happy no matter what the circumstances were.

Queen Hippolyta sighed in relief as she knew how much Diana loved her husband. If it wasn't for her love for Batman, Diana would be back home living with her on the Themyscira. "Then what is troubling you?"

Diana clenched her fists tightly as she angrily spat out "That witch Circe is torturing my husband while that damn bastard of a God Ares killed both Timothy and Richard, and is trying to make me his Queen!"

Queen Hippolyta dropped her jaw in disgust. She too hated Ares and Circe for what they had done to the Amazons in the past. She felt the pain embedded within her daughter's heart. Diana had become mentally and emotionally stronger over the years, and Queen Hippolyta could only thank Batman for that. Before him, Diana would always let her emotions control her actions instead of thinking clearly. "Quickly! Come with me to the armory!" Queen Hippolyta lead both of her daughters to the armory to gather the magical weapons needed to aid them in their fight against Circe.

"Here are the bow and arrows of Apollo. They will pierce the skin of any being and if the wound is severe enough, they will send the victim straight to the pits of Tartarus. Use these on Circe. I'm not sure if these are powerful enough to kill her, but I do know that her magic is not powerful enough to instantly heal her from any wounds these arrows create. It would take a little over a hundred years or so for her to completely heal, depending on the severity of the wound of course." Queen Hippolyta handed the bow and arrows to Donna before turning to Diana. "Unfortunately Ares can't die from them, the most the arrows can do is cause Ares agonizing pain which would probably be healed in a matter of weeks … and that's if you do manage to get one to pierce his skin. We don't possess anything that is powerful enough to truly stop a God, but I pray that you kill that despicable menace to society."

Diana gave her mother another hug. "Thank you mother. We will defeat Ares. He will pay for his crimes."

"Be careful my daughters… Ares is still a powerful God." Queen Hippolyta said with great concern for the both of them.

"We will mother." Donna gave Queen Hippolyta one last hug as the two daughters went back to the jet.

"I think it's best if we moved without the jet if we're still trying to sneak up on them… they could see and hear us coming right?" Diana placed the bow in the quiver along with the arrows and strapped it onto her back.

"That's true. So where are we headed now?" Donna followed Diana into the sky, away from their home island.

"To the amphitheater on Mykonos Island. She has a habit of singing after turning us into animals…" Diana's eyes narrowed as she remembered the time Circe turned her into a certain chubby little animal.

"_The Scarecrow is in the center while The Mad Hatter is against the wall to the right… The five giant goons surrounding the three hostages could be a problem. Got to watch the electrical switch next to Hatter…_" The Cerebral Assassin quickly analyzed the most efficient way of taking down all seven targets while hidden within the shadows on the catwalk of a warehouse somewhere in the western end of Gotham.

He injected the antidote Batman gave him to nullify The Scarecrow's fear toxins before quietly moving closer for a better attack angle. "_The throats and temples of their heads are the weakest points on their bodies. Everything else seems to be heavily armored…_" Ghost saw that three of the goons were watching a TV showing what was happening in Arkham. The other two were helping The Scarecrow keep the video communication going with The Riddler in the asylum.

"Welcome to the party Batman!" The Joker's voice and psychotic laughter rang from the speakers throughout the island. "Remember that our dear Dark Knight is the guest of honor! Don't worry Batman. Everyone will help escort you to the courtyard so we can begin the festivities!"

"_This is obviously a trap… just not for me…_" Batman glared at the giant goons who were cheering him on as he walked towards the courtyard. They were twice his size but twice as weak… probably more. Since none of his enemies knew about his 'godly gifts', they would be in for a shocking surprise. Batman made his way to the courtyard to see just about every single one of his deadly foes surrounding him. The Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Two Face, The Riddler, Killer Croc, Clayface, Mr. Zsasz, and The Ventriloquist with his dummy Scarface stood before Batman, each with a sadistic grin on their faces. The Titan enhanced goons closed the circle around Batman, surrounding him as they all eagerly wanted a piece of him.

Bane slowly made his way inside the circle as he cracked his knuckles. "Hello sénior Batman…I'll take great pleasure in breaking you in two." Batman's eyes narrowed as he glared at Bane.

The search lights turned on and focused in on the center of the circle, lighting up the area. "Then I'll enjoy feasting on your bones!" Killer Croc snarled as his snake-like tongue slithered along his giant teeth.

"Relax… you all will get your chance to beat the Bat. But first let's give the world the show that they've been waiting for!" Joker stepped in front of Bane as he took out a remote.

"You see Batman… as much as I hate to admit it, you have always out smarted us, defeated us no matter how ingenious our individual plans may be. But then a riddle hit me. Would the great Dark Knight survive if we ALL teamed up to take him down?" The Riddler began imitating the noise of a ticking clock before making the sound of a buzzer. "Time's up! The answer is obviously a NO!"

"And all of Gotham will see this glorious show!" The Joker danced around Bane as the television cameras began circling around Batman and Bane. "But first! Let's check in on our three Gotham favorites." A giant screen on the wall of the asylum turned on showing Commissioner Gordon, The Warden, and The Mayor still tied up in electric chairs screaming from their hallucinations as The Scarecrow and The Mad Hatter were injecting more fear toxins into them.

The plan that The Riddler and Joker made was perfectly clear, they wanted to humiliate and defeat Batman on national TV. Kill Commissioner Gordon, The Warden, and The Mayor, then wreck havoc on Gotham. The plan probably would have worked if Ghost didn't already find them, and is waiting for his signal to strike. Even without his powers, Batman would still have found a way to defeat everyone in Arkham. He'd probably come out of it with some significant injuries, and would have had to think of everything while executing his maneuvers flawlessly just to survive. But having them made this all too easy. While knowing he had already won, he still developed that plan to take all of them down without his 'abilities'. He wanted to suppress his powers as much as possible and do as much of this his way.

The Riddler twirled his cane with a confident grin. "Are there any last words you would like to say them before the party begins?"

Batman glared at all his foes before stopping at The Riddler. He brought up his right hand so that everyone watching him on TV could see him snapping his fingers. The five giant henchmen, The Scarecrow, and The Mad Hatter were knocked out instantly. The dark figure then powered down the electrical chairs and freed the three Gotham icons.

The Joker frowned in disappointment as he turned back to Batman. "Now why do you have to go and cheat like that?"

The Riddler slammed his cane down in frustration as he pointed at Batman. "GET HIM!"

Before anyone could move, Bane stepped towards Batman and put his hand out to stop everyone from attacking. "The whole purpose of this was to defeat Batman, not the others. I'll break him in two, and then you all can have what's left of him." Bane activated the device on his arm to inject the venom serum into his blood stream, causing his muscles to triple in size. "After I am done with you… I'll make sure to break every single bone in little Robin's body. And only when he begs for death, will I end his pitiful pathetic life." Bane slammed his right fist into his left palm, waiting to begin the fight. Batman's eyes narrowed as the image of seeing Robin's already lifeless body being mutilated by Bane infuriated him. With his anger escalating, Batman clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

"Speaking of Robin… where are all of your bird boys Batman? Did they finally realize what a loser you are? That you're nothing but a pathetic failure?" The Riddler grinned as he continued. "Once we're done beating you down, there will be nothing you can do but to simply watch as we kill off Robin, Nightwing, and all the other's one by one right before your very eyes."

The Joker began laughing. "Hmm…now where did I put that crowbar I used to beat down the first Robin I killed?"

The images of him finding Jason's beaten and lifeless body along with watching both Robin and Nighting die back in the same warehouse played repeatedly in Batman's mind. He was helpless to stop either from happening. They were dead and there was nothing he could do about it. He failed to save them. He was a failure. Batman's rage began to take over his body as his muscles twitched, growing slightly bigger as he began to breath harder.

"I think you hit a sensitive spot amigo. Shall we make this a fight to the death?" Bane grinned as he began walking towards Batman.

"If that's the way you want it." Batman spat out through his teeth as he let his rage take complete control.

"Something's wrong…" Diana stopped in mid-flight as she felt a deep agonizing pain within her heart. She looked at Donna with concern in her eyes. "Something's terribly wrong with Bruce…"


	10. The Dark Knight's Wrath

**A/N: **I always wondered what Batman would do if he had "powers"… I had a few different ways of how this played out, but I think this was the best way to go under the story's circumstances. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!

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><p><strong>The Dark Knight's Wrath<strong>

"What! What's wrong?" Donna saw the disheartening look on her sister's face.

"I… I'm not sure. I just know he's hurting. We have to go back to him!" Diana turned and was about to head towards Gotham when Ares and Circe appeared in front of them.

"Were you looking for us?" Circe said with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"YOU!" Both Diana and Donna yelled out in rage as they immediately bolted towards Circe. Ares quickly formed giant hands out of pure energy to grab the two Amazons. They both tried to break free but couldn't move as Ares and Circe floated closer to them.

"Princess, Princess, Princess…" Ares put his hand under his chin as if he were thinking. "Were you watching TV?" Ares spun around and looked at Diana with a smirk on his face. "No? Well then, you're missing a really good show."

Circe floated over to Diana and placed her hand under Diana's chin, lifting her head to face her. "I don't want to spoil it, but there might be a possibility that something could happen to your pointy-eared husband."

"I've figured it out my lovely Amazon. You are protected as long as my mother's blessing stays with you. However, the instant your love for him dissipates, her spell will be lifted. So naturally, all I have to do is destroy your love and faith in the ever-so-noble Batman. Soon the Batman you know and love will cease to exist and everything you despise and vowed to fight against will remain… and with that, the love you have for him will die… leaving me free to make you mine." Ares' smirked quickly turned into a giant grin. "And the best part about what's going to take place is that I actually didn't have to do anything to make this happen." Ares waved his hand as the four of them teleported to Arkham.

"_Now that those three are safe, that witch is mine…_" Ghost appeared back in the cave to look for anything to help him defeat Circe and Ares. He walked up to the table by the computer console to see what Batman was last looking at. "_Hmm… This might be useful._"

"Good evening Master Colby. It is good to see you again, you should visit more often. I'm afraid that Master Bruce is still at Arkham at the moment." Alfred walked up to him while dusting the computer console.

Colby took off his mask with a sigh. "It's been a long time Alfred. That's quite alright… I'm on my way to assist Bruce at Arkham." He walked over to the special cell. "I just thought I'd come by to see how she's doing."

"Don't worry Sir. Master Bruce will do everything he can to return all of them to normal. And with your help, I know it's only a matter of time before she will be in your arms again." Alfred placed his hand on Colby's shoulder as he looked at what used to be the batclan with him.

"Thank you Alfred." Colby put his mask back on and headed back out towards Arkham.

"You've got to hand it to The Joker… he knows how to make one hell of a TV show." Flash said as he began eating some popcorn.

"Shut up! This isn't funny!" Green Lantern spat out as he turned up the volume on the control console. The whole league was watching it on the gigantic screen in the central hub.

"What are you talking about? This is great! Bats is about to fight every single villain in Gotham by himself! This is can't miss stuff! He's going to mop the floor with these idiots! Or have you forgotten that Bats is super buff now?" Flash tossed the empty popcorn box behind his shoulder and grabbed another.

"Seriously… I'd like a shot at taking on all of those morons myself." Shayera crossed her arms over her chest while looking at Green Lantern.

Green Lantern shook his head. "Do you ever stop thinking about getting into fights?"

"No, not really… That reminds me… I feel like sparring tonight." Shayera grinned seductively at Green Lantern.

Green Lantern raised his eyebrow as a smirk appeared on his face. "Whatever you say…"

"Something doesn't feel right about this…We've got to help him." Superman began to leave.

"No" J'onn raised his hand to stop Superman. "He has to do this on his own. I believe that there is more to this than just pride." J'onn sighed and went on to check other activities around the world just incase something else required the league's attention.

Everyone around the world who was watching Batman brutally beat down Bane dropped their jaws in disbelief. It cemented the fear of what Batman was truly capable of. It especially established a new state of fear to the ones witnessing it within Arkham. Batman was relentless in his fight with Bane. Easily dodging and countering every single attack while pummeling him with one lethal hit after another. Bane stumbled to his knees as he tried to breathe in much needed oxygen. He couldn't believe it. Batman was humiliating him, he couldn't touch him. Batman was too fast, too quick… too strong. Bane couldn't connect a single strike on Batman. "I'll kill you!" Bane roared in rage as he turned the dials on his venom injecting device.

"You're going to die by my hands!" Bane turned the dial until the arrow pointed to 'max'. He was going to use to all of the venom he had left, even if it was going to kill him. Bane wanted to be as strong as he possibly could to kill Batman regardless of the repercussions of what that dangerous amount of venom would do to his body. Bane's muscles viscously pulsated to extreme sizes as he grew to monstrous proportions. Bane screamed in pain as the venom surged through his body, expanding his muscles to be more than ten times the size of Batman's. "You die now!" Bane swung his fist down at Batman.

Batman easily dodged it as Bane's fist went elbow deep into the concrete floor. Bane's gigantic muscles had made him significantly slower than before. Bane pulled his arm out of the floor, sending chunks of concrete rocks flying all over the place, before turning to face Batman. He wound up and threw another punch with his right fist at Batman's face. Batman caught his gigantic arm and quickly snapped it in half. Bane's eyes widened in horror as he saw his bone sticking out of his arm. Before Bane could react, Batman shattered his right kneecap with a devastating kick. Bane crumpled to the floor in pain as he looked up at Batman. "Impossible… how… NO! You can't you be this strong!" Bane swung his left fist at Batman, desperately trying to hit him. Batman easily grabbed it, and with a chopping motion, shattered the bones in his forearm.

With blood all over his gauntlets, Batman savagely broke the rest of Bane's bones as he continued to mercilessly hammer him into the ground. Batman's adrenaline continued to make each hit harder than the one before it as Bane's body stopped moving. Blood continued to splatter onto his suit with each and every earth shaking punch he threw. After throwing Bane's broken and bloodied body thought the wall on the south end, he turned to the rest of them with the most intimidating batglare any of them had ever seen. Of course the fact that Batman had just ruthlessly destroyed Bane with ease made the intimidation factor increase exponentially. "One way or another, this all ends tonight."

No one moved. The Joker didn't have any jokes or asinine remarks. The Riddler couldn't think of any sarcastic riddles or comebacks. Batman was human. He wasn't supposed to possess this kind of power. It was one thing to force Batman to lose control and go on a rampage, but it was another to have him do it with such incredible strength and power.

"He's just a man! I'll tear your flesh from your bones!" Killer Croc tackled Batman to the ground. Croc viciously tried to bite Batman's head off but was stopped as Batman quickly grabbed the top and bottom of Croc's jaw and held it in place. Killer Croc's eye's widened in shock as he looked into Batman's stone cold glare. With one quick powerful motion, Batman brutally snapped off the lower half of Croc's jaw before picking him up and slamming him into the ground. Everyone watched in horror as Croc slowly got back up to his feet with his lower jaw lifelessly hanging. Screaming in rage, Croc went after Batman again only to have Batman take him down and break both of his legs. Blood splashed out as the broken bones of Croc's legs tore through his armored skin. Croc screamed in pain as he tried to crawl away from Batman. Killer Croc's eyes bulged in horror as Batman walked up to him and stomped on his forehead, cracking his skull in the process. Batman continued to repeatedly slam Croc's head into the ground even after his body remained limp and lifeless. Croc's blood was slowly oozing out of new the crater that his head made in the ground. Batman didn't stop slamming Croc's head into the ground until The Riddler spoke.

"He's just one man! We work as a team, he goes down. Get him!" The Riddler motioned for the countless Titan infused goons to attack Batman.

With his adrenaline endlessly fueling his rage, Batman completely annihilated the goons… breaking ribs, arms, legs, and skulls without restraint as countless bloodied, battered, and broken bodies piled up on the floor. All the rage, the anger, the frustration, the suffering, the pain… everything that Bruce kept inside ever since he was eight years old was finally being released. He held nothing back as he ruthlessly beat down everyone that came at him.

"Forget it! Just shoot the bastard!" Two Face pulled out his machine gun while motioning to Scarface to take his tommy gun and shoot down Batman.

Batman quickly threw out two explosive bat-a-rangs at Two Face and Scarface. They both went flying into the air from the explosion. The Scarface dummy burned up in flames while The Ventriloquist unconsciously landed on the floor. As Batman began making his way towards Two Face, Mr. Zsasz and Clayface jumped in front of him.

"You might have taken Bane and Croc out Batman. But you can't hit what isn't solid!" Clayface turned his left hand into a large axe while transforming his right in to a hammer. Mr. Zsasz took out several knives as they both began attacking Batman together.

Batman easily dodged both of their attacks while setting both of them up to attack each other. Batman dodged Clayface's axe-shaped hand at the last second, leaving Mr. Zsasz's right arm in its path. Mr. Zsasz dropped to his knees and screamed in pain as his entire right arm fell to the floor in a bloody mess. Batman quickly dodged a few more of Clayface's attacks before freezing him with a special bat-a-rang that traps whatever it comes into contact with in a giant glacier. Batman walked up to Mr. Zsasz just before he heard a faint sound of a gun cocking. He instantly flew up into the sky as Two Face began shooting his machine gun at him. The bullets missed Batman but hit Mr. Zsasz several times in the chest as he fell down in a pile of blood.

Batman took out another bat-a-rang and threw it at Two Face's hands. Just as he dropped the gun, Batman landed in front of him, broke his left arm and elbowed him in the ribs, completely shattering them in the process. Two Face fell to the floor gasping for air as he glared at Batman. His glare quickly disappeared as he saw a fist coming at him. Batman pounded Two Face's face into the ground until nothing but blood covered the white half of Two Face's suit.

"You can't do this! This doesn't make sense!" The Riddler shouted. Realizing that he now mistakably got Batman's attention, he began to backpedal away from him. Batman threw Two Face's body aside as he got up and started to make his way towards The Riddler and The Joker with both Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn shaking in fear behind them.

"Yea… even I must admit that I never thought you were in to this kind of fun." The Joker grinned as he shoved The Riddler into Batman and laughed while running in the opposite direction.

Batman caught The Riddler by his throat, cutting off the airflow to his lungs as he squeezed it tightly. Without any hesitation, Batman head butted The Riddler, instantly shattering his skull before throwing him to the side. Harley and Ivy were paralyzed in fear as they held on to each other, staring at The Dark Knight.

"Ple… please don't hurt us! I… I swear never to hurt anyone again!" Poison Ivy squeaked out as she closed her eyes and prayed that Batman wouldn't beat her into oblivion.

"Yea… wha… what red said!" Harley said as she curled up, scared out of her mind.

Batman walked right past the two terrified ladies. All of his attention was fixated on The Joker and his futile attempt to run away. Batman flew straight at The Joker and grabbed him by his hair from behind before slamming the back of his head into the ground. Batman continued to beat The Joker like never before. He hammered away while breaking just about every single bone in The Joker's body. Batman didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered. Jason was right, Joker deserved to die, and he was going to make sure that The Joker was going to suffer tremendously before begging for death. His gauntlets were dripping with blood as he continued to pound away at The Joker's face. Harley and Ivy sat in the corner of the courtyard, as far away from Batman as possible. They were traumatized by the brutality of the beating that The Joker was receiving.

"Stop…" Batman ignored him, hitting him across the face.

"Stop…" Batman broke his eye socket with another blow.

"Stop…" Batman cracked The Joker's skull with a strike to the temple.

"Stop…" Batman's fist struck and shattered The Joker's jaw and teeth as blood continued to spill out of his mouth.

"_NO! Please Bruce! Don't give in! Don't kill him!_" Diana couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ares had covered both Diana and Donna's mouths with tape and forced the both of them to watch. The sight was almost unbearable. Not because The Joker and the rest of them were so brutally beaten down. As far as she was concerned, they all deserved it. But Diana couldn't stand to see her husband lose control. She watched him roar in an uncontrollable rage as he savagely beat down his enemies and now on the verge of beating The Joker to death. Diana could feel all the pain and suffering embedded within Bruce's heart grow with each and every strike he threw. She felt all the anger, the rage… everything that Bruce went through since he was a child, and she was powerless to heal him… to save him. It broke her heart. Diana couldn't help but cry helplessly as she watched the darkness in her husband take over. She wasn't strong enough to stop it. The darkness within him had won. Ares had won. Circe had won. The Joker, to a certain extent, had won. Batman was going to cross the line and kill The Joker. She was going to fail him. Fail to save him from himself. Bruce was going to give in… and he was never coming back.


	11. Knight Fall

**A/N: **I'm not sure if this is going a bit overboard, but I always wondered what would happen if a certain situation ever presented itself. I think you guys will understand what I'm talking about after reading this chapter. I might have made it a bit extreme but it seemed like the right thing to do considering the circumstances the story gives us… or at least I think so.

Let me know what you think, and thanks again for all of your support and reviews!

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><p><strong>Knight Fall<strong>

"_Never again… no one will ever suffer because of me. It ends here and now._" Batman raised his fist in the air ready to deliver the final blow to The Joker's head. Suddenly a severely intense insurmountable pain attacked his heart. With his right hand still in the air, he grabbed his chest with the left. He felt his heart beating… The pain continued to increase with each beat. It felt as if he had his heart ripped out and replaced with one that was pumping acid into his arteries. He never felt this much heartache before. The only times he ever felt anything remotely close to this kind of pain was when Diana was in some type of emotional pain. Batman's eyes widened in horror. "_DIANA!_" Batman lowered his right hand to his left and looked at them. The gauntlets were completely soaked in blood. Glancing down at his suit, he could see nothing but the crimson stains covering most of what used to be his dark gray armor.

"Cou… couldn't … do it…. could yah… Bats… I knew… it…" The Joker said through his shattered jaw as he continuously coughed up blood before losing consciousness.

Batman looked around the courtyard to see all the bodies he decimated. He spotted Harley and Ivy sitting in the far corner trembling in fear. He almost crossed that line. Mercilessly beat down everyone he hated. Almost killed The Joker. But this relentless unbearable pain in his chest stopped him. Diana stopped him… Stopped him from doing something he would have regretted for the rest of his entire life. He closed his eyes as he tried to feel Diana's presence, she was nearby. She was in pain… pain that he caused. Batman spun around and looked up into the sky to see his wife and Donna being held against their will by Ares and Circe. "DIANA!"

Ares quickly appeared in front of Batman with Circe, Donna, and Diana behind him. "You disappoint me Batman. You were supposed to disgrace yourself and break the Amazon's heart by giving in and killing them all!" Ares angrily motioned to the carnage that Batman created. "It seems that nothing will ever force you to give up your morals… I thought you would have surely cracked when I had you helplessly watch both Nightwing and Robin die, but obviously I was wrong."

Batman ignored Ares' taunts as he couldn't look away from Diana. The pain embedded in his heart slowly subsided. There were tear stains on her cheeks, but her eyes told him that she was relieved that he didn't cross that line… that their bond was stronger than the darkness within him.

"I had to ask myself… Is there truly no possible way to push Batman over the edge and into the darkness within him?" Ares mockingly put his hand to his chin as if he had to think hard about it. "All of your mortal enemies combined couldn't bring it out of you…" A giant grin appeared on Ares' face as he took his hand off of his chin. "But maybe your two dead sons can beat it out of you!" Ares snapped his fingers as the dead bodies of both Nightwing and Robin appeared floating between him and Batman. Batman, Diana, and Donna's eyes widened in horror as they knew what was about to happen.

Batman saw the magical bow and arrows strapped to Diana's back and quickly jumped behind her to grab them. But before he could release the arrow and shoot Ares, The God of War quickly blasted Batman with a giant beam of energy. The bow and arrow were sent flying over the outer walls of the courtyard while Batman came crashing down onto the ground. Ares smirked as he raised the dead bodies of Nightwing and Robin with his energy force. "You're pathetic. Did you really think that those weak and useless arrows could kill a God?" Ares laughed as he brought both Nightwing and Robin back to life. Their bodies emitted a golden light as their souls returned, allowing them to move once again.

Batman stood in shock as he watched both Nightwing and Robin open their eyes and look at him with a sense of confusion and fear. Diana and Donna watched on in disbelief. They were back… they were alive.

"BATMAN!" Robin shouted as he saw that Batman was covered in blood.

"What's going on!" Nightwing eyes shifted back and forth from Batman to Diana and Donna, then to Ares and Circe.

But before anyone could say anything, Ares took control of their minds as he hit them with another energy beam, causing their white screened eyes to turn into dark blood red ones. Their faces turned into stone cold glares as they stared down their one and only enemy. Ares released them as they floated down to the floor waiting for their new master's orders. Ares crossed his arms as his grin grew wider. "They are now just as powerful as you are Batman… and now the whole world will watch you kill your own. Or if you refuse to do so… they will watch them destroy you. It's your choice Batman… they won't stop until you're dead. Either way you lose, I win. Once last chance Batman. Agree to give the Amazon to me and everyone will be spared from suffering such an unnecessary death."

"Never" Batman stated flatly as he glared straight into Ares' eyes.

Ares glared back at Batman with pure hatred and jealousy. "Ultimately… if I can't have the Amazon, then neither will you."

"_NO! Not again! NO! Damn Ares! Damn him to the pits of Tartarus!_" Diana thought that she already had reached the very depths and pits of the emotional torment and despair that her heart could ever feel when she held him in her arms as he bled to death on that devastating day. Diana remembered all the times she watched Bruce continuously come back to the cave after countless missions half dead and bleeding … She accepted and endured all of those heartaches over the course of the time she spent being with Bruce because being with him, and being loved by him, was worth it. But everything that has happened over the past few days was pushing it beyond anything she could have possibly imagined. Saying that it was killing her to see him in such demoralizing and devastating pain was an understatement. The pain in her heart was unbearable. Diana didn't know how she would live knowing the pain she caused Bruce. It almost made her wish that she didn't have a heart to feel such suffering. Diana finally understood what Bruce meant when he refused to start a relationship with her because he cared too much for her to have the possibility of having his enemies doing whatever it took to get to him through her. Ironically it was one of Diana's enemies, Ares, who was using Bruce to get to her by forcing her to watch him unwillingly participate in a fight to the death with his own two adoptive sons.

As tears continued to stream down her face, she looked at Batman. She didn't see it initially, but as she continued to watch him, something was familiar about the way he was standing. His glare was cold and unnerving as he stood tall. The visible part of his face was unemotional as if he was back to normal, thinking clearly and logically. It was that look that she came to love. The look that always assured her that he would find a way to win. The look on his face revived her belief that somehow, someway, they would find a way to overcome this just like they overcame everything else. It opened up her memories of her telling him that he was worth the risks. That their love was worth it, and nothing would ever prove otherwise. That her words would still hold true, no matter how hopeless it may seem.

"That's it! I'm going down there!" Superman said angrily as he headed towards the teleportation pad.

"But they told us not to interfere…" Flash grabbed Superman on the shoulder.

"I don't care what they said! I'm making this official Justice League business. I won't allow him to throw his life away!" Superman brushed off Flash's hand.

"But what can we do against a God?" Green Lantern looked at Shayera as she continued to miserably watch the screen.

"I don't know… but anything's better than just standing here and watching this go on." Superman was about to take off when J'onn grabbed Superman's arm.

J'onn pointed to the screen. "Superman, the city of Gotham has disappeared from the Earth!"

"And just so that none of your so-called Justice League members interfere, I sealed the city of Gotham off from the rest of the world." Ares' voice rang through the speakers as they turned back to the screen.

"DAMN IT!" Superman slammed his fists into the monitoring console, instantly destroying it as pieces exploded all over the place.

"Batman and Wonder Woman are on their own…" J'onn spoke with great sorrow in his voice as every member of the league in the embassy turned their attention from the giant screen to see Superman destroy another console in rage.

Both Nightwing and Robin relentlessly attacked Batman. They were getting more aggressive and lethal as he continued to block and avoid their attacks. They were good, but Batman was better. He knew all of their techniques and tendencies, making it easy anticipating their moves. But none of that mattered, they were fighting to kill… or die trying. Normal takedowns were useless. They would continue to fight even with the most severe of injuries. The only way to stop them was to kill them. The one thing Batman refused to do.

Batman blocked a kick to his head from Robin before avoiding several hits to his kidneys from Nightwing. "Nightwing! Robin! Stop this! Think about what you're doing. It's me, Batman!"

"Ba… Batman?" Nightwing shook his head trying to focus.

"Wha… what's going on?" Robin was blinking rapidly while holding his head as if he had a migraine.

Batman grabbed Nightwing by the shoulders and shook him forcefully. "Snap out of it! It's me! It's Bat… ACK!"

Robin kicked Batman in the thigh, fracturing his femur as an evil grin emerged on Nightwing's face. "Sucker…" Nightwing struck Batman with a lethal blow to his temple, sending him flying into the wall of the courtyard.

"You are pathetic Batman. Do you really think you can really get through to them?" Ares laughed loudly as he watched Batman crawl out of the giant hole in the wall. "They will only listen to me Batman… and the only thing on their minds is to kill you, by any means necessary."

Batman looked at left leg as he waited for his vision to clear up. It was throbbing in pain as he could barely stand on it. "_Damn it! Possible fracture… maybe broken… need to move._" Batman looked up to see two blurry forms of Nightwing and Robin approach him as he forced himself to stand up. He blocked a strike to his face but missed one to his right ribs before another connected to his right kneecap, sending him crumbling to the floor. Before Batman could even react to the new sense of pain circulating throughout his body, Nightwing grabbed the back of his head and repeatedly slammed his face into the concrete floor. After seeing blood continuously run down Batman's face, Nightwing threw him across the courtyard towards Diana and Donna. Batman tried to get up but his body was in tremendous amount of pain. His right ribs were broken, his right kneecap was cracked, left leg was possibly broken, and the same could probably be said for his nose as well… Batman's vision was still blurred from the repeated blows to the head as he wiped off the blood that was running down his face.

"_Damn it! I… I got to take control of this before they kill me…_" Just as his vision cleared up, he saw Robin run up and launch him into the air with an uppercut to the jaw. Robin then leaped into the air to meet Batman and struck him in the chest, sending him crashing back down into the floor. Robin came back down and landed on Batman's stomach with his feet, causing Batman to cough up blood before being punched in the face again. Nightwing picked him up and threw him at the feet of Ares and Circe with Diana and Donna watching in horror.

Batman spat out more blood from his mouth as he forced himself up to face his protégés. With his back turned against Ares, The God of War shot Batman with a blast of energy that sent him rocketing into Robin. Robin stopped Batman from flying past him by punching him in the stomach, further severely damaging his already internally bleeding vital organs before sending him towards Nightwing with a roundhouse kick to the throat. Nightwing caught Batman by his cape and hovered in the air. With Batman's feet inches above the floor, Nightwing proceeded to continuously punch him in the kidneys until blood was spewing out of Batman's mouth. Nightwing then began twirling Batman around by the cape in a tornado like motion before sending him crashing into the wall near Harley and Ivy. Both Harley and Ivy jumped in fear from the impact that Batman made with the wall.

"Get out" Batman said flatly to the two as he crawled out of another hole with blood dripping out of his mouth. The two ladies looked at each other and quickly ran inside the asylum for cover while peeking out the window to watch. Batman took a breath trying to regain his focus. He continued to defend himself from Nightwing and Robin for as long as his body allowed him to. Each block and counter he made took their toll on his already severely beaten and battered body. Batman was slowing down from all the fatigue as each strike from Robin and Nightwing came closer and closer to hitting its target.

"_NO! BRUCE!_" Diana knew it was only a matter of time before both Nightwing and Robin would inevitably kill him if someone didn't stop them. Batman was running out of energy. She could feel his pain. Being viciously beaten down by his own was demoralizing. There was absolutely nothing she could do to help. She was bound by Ares' magic and none of the Justice League members could reach them. She could only helplessly watch her husband, the love of her life, her whole world… be beaten to death by his own sons. The pain within Diana's heart was hurting her more than ever. As Bruce was slowly dying, Diana was dying. She couldn't watch anymore, it was too painful, too heartbreaking… Diana closed her eyes, but that didn't stop the rivers of tears from leaving her eyes.

"No Princess… you're going to miss the best part!" Circe used her magic to force Diana to open her eyes and look in the direction of Batman and the others.

"_NO! I can't! Please! No more! No more! BRUCE!_" Diana saw Batman's body fail him as he missed a block on one of Nightwing's attacks and took a shot to the head. Batman collapsed to the floor as both Nightwing and Robin began to mercilessly beat him further into the ground.

Ares enthusiastically threw his hands into the air as the long awaited moment had finally arrived. "The Great Dark Knight has fallen!"


	12. Vengeance

**Vengeance**

"_NOW!_" Ghost began his attack as he sprang from his hiding spot behind Ares and Circe.

Ghost patiently waited for the most opportune time to strike Ares and Circe. He knew he didn't have the power to take them on in a frontal attack, nor did he have all the required weapons to defeat them in a surprise attack when he first arrived. As much as it angered him to see his long time friend Batman be ruthlessly beaten down by Nightwing and Robin, he couldn't reveal himself until he was absolutely sure that he could defeat the so-called God of War and that witch. It didn't bother him at all to see Batman annihilate the inmates of Gotham the way he did, although he believed that Batman should have been more efficient in doing so. After seeing Batman getting blasted by Ares and having the magical bow and arrow fly out of the courtyard, Ghost knew that those were the last weapons he needed to take down Ares and Circe. He just needed to wait for the perfect moment to do so.

While in the air, Ghost threw the magical electrifying net device at Ares' back while quickly shooting an arrow at Circe's left shoulder. Both Ares and Circe were hit simultaneously as Ghost landed behind Diana to grab three more arrows out of the quiver, aimed all three of them, and shot Circe again as she turned around. Both Diana and Donna looked on in surprise to see Ghost silently moving so quickly. They had no idea that he was even on the island, let alone behind them the whole time. It amazed them to watch how he had trapped Ares in the magical net while shooting down Circe with the magical arrows all in one fluent motion. Circe had an arrow in each of her shoulders with two more in her stomach as she fell to the floor in agonizing pain. Ghost grabbed one more arrow before he ran up to Circe, pinned her down, and positioned the arrow directly between her eyes. Ghost's red screened eyes narrowed as he glared at Circe. The tip of the arrowhead was inches away from her face, ready to be launched into her brain.

Ares was in excruciating pain as the electrical current continued to increase while pulsating throughout his body. Even his godly strength and powers weren't enough to break the net's hold on him as it continued to tighten around him. The electricity became too great that it made Ares lose his control on the energy restraints he put Diana and Donna in. The restraints began to weaken and fade just enough to allow Diana and Donna to break free.

Diana and Donna quickly flew up to Ghost and Circe with pure anger running through their veins. Donna took the bow and arrow from Ghost as she repositioned it back over Circe's face while Ghost went to help Batman. Diana glared at the witch as she clenched her fists tightly. "You witch! You'll pay for this!"

Circe struggled to move but stopped once Donna tapped the arrowhead into the skin of her forehead. "Go ahead and kill me. I'll be back."

Diana was about to beat her into the ground when Donna quickly shouted "Diana don't! We still need her to turn the others back to normal!"

It took every ounce of Diana's self control to stop herself from pummeling Circe into oblivion. Diana took out another arrow and jammed it into Circe's chest. "Turn them back to the way they were! NOW!"

Circe squirmed in pain as Diana continued to twist it, causing as much pain as possible. "Ok… done!" Circe said as she tried to stop Diana for twisting it further.

"She's lying! Use the lasso to make sure she actually did it!" Donna dug the arrowhead into Circe's forehead until blood began to drip out.

Diana took out her magical lasso of truth and tied it around Circe. "Did you restore them back to normal?"

Circe glared at Diana as she spoke through her clenched teeth. "…no…"

Diana took another arrow out and jammed it into Circe's chest again. She began twisting both of them as Circe continuously cried out in pain. "Turn them back to normal! NOW!"

Circe continued to squirm as she gritted her teeth from the excruciating pain. "It… it's… done…"

"Now swear that you will never turn any of them into animals again!" Donna demanded, still holding the arrowhead at Circe's forehead.

"Ne… never…" Circe spat out. Diana didn't really care whether Circe agreed to what Donna wanted. Diana just wanted to torture Circe for her crimes as she started twisting and turning the four arrows in Circe's stomach and chest. Alternating between the four to maximize the pain as blood began pouring out of the wounds. "OK! OK! I… swear… stop… stop!" Circe managed to cry out as she couldn't take anymore.

Diana didn't care what Circe said as she continued to dig the arrows deeper into Circe's flesh until Donna looked up and saw Batman lying on the floor with Ghost distracting both Nightwing and Robin as best he could. "DIANA! BATMAN!"

Diana's head quickly snapped up towards Batman as she saw him lying down, motionless. Diana quickly ripped out the two arrows that she was twisting into Circe and zipped towards Ares with Donna close behind with the magic lasso in hand. Circe cried in pain as the two arrows were torn out of her flesh. She slowly gathered herself and disappeared back to her island to attempt to recover from her wounds.

"ARES!" Diana watched as The God of War squirmed within the net as she jammed the two arrows into his chest.

Ares screamed out in pain but continued to smirk. "Do as you wish Princess… but I'll win! He's going to die very soon!" Ares tilted his head towards Batman. Diana looked up to see Batman slowly get up and defend himself from Robin while Nightwing and Ghost were fighting each other. "Mark my words Princess, you will be mine… I won't rest until you lay beneath me in my bed."

Diana's eyes widened with rage as she continued to twist the arrows deeper into Ares' chest. "Take your mind control off of them! NOW!"

Ares gritted his teeth in pain. "Never… maybe I'll have them kill each other after they finish with your pathetic husband."

Donna took a quick glance at her friends fighting each other before returning her attention to Ares, tying the lasso around him. "Talking about being pathetic… you're stupid enough to be trapped by this net twice. I mean, surely you would have learned your lesson the first time with Aphrodite?"

Ares glared at Donna with anger. He was humiliated when he was trapped in front of all the Gods a long time ago by Hephaestus. And here he was, trapped in the very same net by some unknown mortal. "I shall see to it that you and everyone else will suffer at my hands for this Amazon!"

Donna returned his glare with one of her own as she pointed her arrow at Ares' forehead. "I don't think so… incase you've forgotten, you're trapped in this net for eternity or until we decide to free your sorry ass."

Losing her patience Diana took out another arrow and jammed it into Ares' crotch. Ares screamed out in horrendous pain as Diana twisted it before ripping it back out. "Free them from your control NOW!" Before Ares could react to her demand, she jammed the arrow back into his crotch.

Ares cried in pain as he saw his own blood pouring out of his crotch. "Never!"

Diana took another arrow and jammed it into his crotch as Ares screamed in agony. "If I must suffer for an eternity, so will you!"

She continued to repeatedly stab him until the pain became too great for Ares to take. "STOP! STOP! It's done! I swear!"

Suddenly both Nightwing and Robin began floating in midair as a white light emitted from their bodies. Their blood red eyes faded back to white as they blinked repeatedly trying to figure out what just happened. They both looked down to see Batman lying on the floor motionless with Ghost kneeling down next to him. Their eyes widened in shock as they saw that Batman was covered in blood along with their own gauntlets. "BATMAN!" They both fell to the floor and quickly ran to him.

"_BRUCE!_" Diana dropped the two arrows in her hands and quickly left Ares and Donna to tend to her fallen husband.

"Are they both back to their normal selves?" Donna demanded, still glaring at Ares while aiming her arrow between his eyes.

"Ye… yes… just as they once were… before..." Ares managed to squeak out as the throbbing pain from the net and arrows continued to increase.

"We'll release you if you swear that you will NEVER interfere with the lives of Diana, myself, or any of our loved ones and friends again and return Gotham back to its rightful place!" Donna's eyes narrowed as she spoke. Ares glared at her, refusing to agree to such a deal. Donna stomped on Ares' crotch to emphasize that he was in no position to bargain.

Ares curled up in pain. "You… you have a deal…"

Donna pointed the arrow back onto Ares' forehead. "Say the words!"

"I… I swear to never interfere with your life or the lives of Diana, or any of your loved ones and friends again." Ares said bitterly as the electric current continued to pulsate throughout his body. Donna fired the arrow from the bow, hitting the controlling device and shutting it off. Ares glared at Donna just before disappearing with a flash of light.

"BATMAN!" Diana held Batman in her arms, he was just barely breathing.

"Take him back to the cave Diana. We'll clean everything up here." Nightwing looked around the courtyard, seeing the remains from the destruction that just took place. Diana nodded and quickly took off with Batman in her arms. Nightwing watched Diana disappear into the night before turning back to Robin in complete anger. "I can't believe we did that to him." Nightwing looked at his blood stained hands.

"I know… I…I knew what I was doing… but I couldn't stop myself." Robin stared at the floor where he remembered brutally beating down a helpless and defenseless Batman.

"Heads up. Here comes the police." Donna motioned over to the cops as they were making their way through the piles of broken bodies scattered all over the courtyard.

"Wow… see! Bats always comes through!" Flash said as he put his arms behind his head and reclined on the chair.

"Yea… as long as he isn't going to DIE from that beating!" Shayera smacked Flash on the head, causing him to fall off of his chair.

"I just want to know who that man is…" Green Lantern pointed to Ghost on the screen.

"I have no idea… but whoever he is, he saved Batman's life." J'onn said as he switched on the announcement speaker. "Attention… From what we can tell, Batman has been taken to a medical facility by Wonder Woman. We'll update all of you on Batman's condition once we hear from her." The giant crowd of heroes below slowly dispersed as they began talking to each other about what just happened.

Superman sighed in relief as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Only Batman…"

"I can't believe he almost killed The Joker and the rest of them." Flash scratched his head.

Green Lantern replayed the footage as he shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe Nightwing and Robin almost killed HIM!"

"Hell! I can't believe Nightwing and Robin were dead! How in the hell did they die to begin with?" Shayera leaned against the monitor with her arms to get a better look at the possessed Robin fighting Batman.

"I'm not sure… but I'm going to make sure we find out. Bruce is never doing anything like this on his own again. I don't care what he says." Superman glared at the monitor, but was relieved that his friend found a way out of either killing himself or Nightwing and Robin, and didn't submit to the darkness within him.

"You're starting to sound like Bats himself." Flash grinned at Superman. Superman turned his glare from the monitor to Flash before flying off the platform without saying a word.

"He's even working on a glare too!" Flash motioned at Superman as both Green Lantern and Shayera shook their heads, laughing with Flash.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I believe what Ares got was justifiable under the circumstances… don't you agree? I know I wanted this story to stay in the darker mood setting, but hey… having a little comic relief is always funny right? Thanks for the support and reading my stories! Reviews are always welcomed and greatly appreciated.


	13. Revelations

**Revelations**

Diana entered the cave with Batman in her hands. She saw that The Oracle, Batgirl, Black Canary, The Huntress, and Zatanna were indeed returned to their normal selves as she flew straight to Alfred at the medical station. "Alfred! Please! Tell me he's going to be alright!" Diana gently placed Bruce on the medical table as Alfred quickly went to work.

"Don't worry Mistress Diana. I assure you that you will be the very first to know of his condition." Alfred hooked Bruce up to the life support system while analyzing all of his injuries.

Diana was still fuming as her jaw was clenched tightly while watching Alfred carefully take off Bruce's suit. Ares and Circe still needed to pay for this. She hasn't even begun making them pay for what they did to her, for what they did to him.

"Diana?" Diana's thoughts of plotting her revenge on her two enemies quickly faded as Barbra placed her hand on Diana's arm. Diana turned to see her smile warmly. "Bruce will be alright. It's not like he hasn't been badly hurt like this before." Diana knew Barbra was right, but that didn't make it any easier. She sighed and tried to smile as best she could. They both headed back towards the others at the backup computer and allow Alfred to fully concentrate on Bruce's injuries.

"I can't believe Bruce actually annihilated them like that. It's about time they got their asses handed to them! They totally deserved it." Helena replayed the footage of Batman beating down Bane and Killer Croc on the screen with a giant grin on her face.

Dinah raised her eyebrow as she watched Ivy and Harley sitting in the background on the screen. "I think Harley peed in her pants!" Everyone laughed as they gathered around the screen to see. "You really think they are going to change their ways and straighten out?"

"After seeing what Bruce just did to everyone there, I would think so." Zatanna took out her wand and transformed it into a cane to lean on.

Helena crossed her arms over her chest with a smirk on her face. "Talk about intimidation… Batman just supplanted himself as the most dangerous man in the world if he already wasn't. I bet after watching that, no one in their right mind would ever want to go against him."

Barbra paused the video footage on The Cerebral Assassin attacking Ares and Circe. "I wonder how Bruce got him to be in Gotham today…"

"Yea I know… I haven't seen him in ages." Dinah placed her hand on her chin, trying to think of the last time she teamed up with him.

"I'm not sure… Why do you think Colby is back in Gotham Zee?" Diana placed her hands on her hips as she grinned ear to ear while looking at Zatanna.

Zatanna's eyes widened for an instant, she was surprised that Diana put her on the spot like that. Quickly recovering, she raised her eyebrow, trying to play off her initial reaction. "And just how do you know who he is?"

Everyone watched the interactions between Diana and Zatanna with curiosity. Diana tapped the tip of her right index finger on her chin as she looked up at the ceiling smiling. "Ohh… you know how I can get Bruce to tell me things. Like how they trained together while growing up, him being the best fighter in the world, living in San Francisco, very successful…" Diana crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Zatanna as that giant grin reappeared on her face. "… and how you've been dating him for almost a year now…"

Zatanna's jaw dropped in shock, as did everyone else's. "WHAT! How did… who told…" Zatanna immediately turned and glared at Bruce on the medical table while bitterly grumbling out Bruce's name.

"He makes it his business to know remember?" Diana laughed as Zatanna turned back around, beginning to blush.

"Wow. The Sorceress and the Assassin… how romantic." Helena couldn't believe her ears. "How's that even possible? He's more of a loner than Bruce!"

Dinah crossed her arms on her chest as she smirked. "Well… only while he's 'Ghosting', otherwise he's fun to hang out with. So how'd you manage to get him Zee?"

"Yea! I've got to hear this!" Oracle sat straight up, waiting anxiously for Zatanna to tell her story.

Zatanna couldn't help but grin as she twirled her cane. "You know… it's just like us super hero women to take the man we want by force." All of the girls grinned stupidly as they reminisced how they 'forced' their current husband/boyfriend to be their man.

Dinah shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "Quit stalling! Details NOW!"

Before Zatanna could begin, the batmobile roared into the cave as Nighting, Robin, Donna, and Ghost all jumped out and immediately came over to them, anxious to know Bruce's condition.

"Dick!" Barbra face lit up as she threw her hands up in the air when he rushed up to hug her. Barbra began to cry as she kissed him repeatedly. "I thought I lost you!"

"For a while… so did I." Dick hugged Barbra as he looked over at the medical station. He watched Alfred rigorously working away at the injuries he and Tim gave Bruce. Tim nodded at Cassandra as they greeted each other by bumping the other's fist.

Donna quickly flew to Diana and gave her a hug. "How is he?"

Diana sighed as she tried to smile at Donna. "Alfred is still working on him… we'll know as soon as Alfred is done."

"Damn it!" Dick slammed his fist into the computer console. "I was completely aware of everything that was happening, and I couldn't stop it. I… I almost killed him."

"You mean WE almost killed him." Tim stood still, not taking his sights off of Bruce as he spoke bitterly. "He let us do that to him…"

"What do you mean he LET you do that to him?" Helena crossed her arms as she raised her eyebrow.

"Let's be real here… it doesn't matter how lethal we become or how strong we are… we can't beat him. He wanted us to win." Dick replayed the footage of him fighting Batman on the screen.

"He would rather give his own life than be forced to have either of you die... You both know that." Diana placed her hand on Tim's shoulder.

"That doesn't make it any easier… How could we live knowing we killed him?" Dick's eyes narrowed as he saw himself throw Batman into the wall.

"Dick…" Barbra placed her hand on his cheek as she turned his head to face her. "It was the same for him when believed that he let the both of you die... and yet, he found a way to overcome it. Just like the both of you would have if Ares had forced you to go that far."

Dick took a deep breath before nodding in agreement. Barbra was right, if he had unwillingly killed Bruce… he would have done whatever it took to correct it, or at least avenge him. "Yea… The decisions we make never seem to get any easier. I just hate it when Bruce disregards his own life to make the right decisions." He looked up at Colby. "Good thing you took down Ares and Circe when you did. When did you actually get there?"

Ghost took off his mask. His face went from cold and emotionless to warmhearted the instant he cracked a faint smile. "I was there waiting to strike since Bruce was fighting Clayface and Mr. Zsasz."

"WHAT! You could have prevented Bruce from taking such a beating!" Diana violently pointed towards Bruce on the medical table as she glared at Colby. His face instantly went back to the cold emotionless glare as the rest of the group took a step back from the two. The tension in the room just escalated to dangerous levels. Diana clenched her fists wanting to badly bash Colby's head in. "You both could have taken on Ares and Circe! What the hell were you waiting for? Bruce needed your help!"

Colby continued to glare at Diana as he spoke in an unemotional flat tone. "And here I was told that you knew Bruce better than anyone. Everyone gives you more credit than you deserve." Everyone's eyes widened as their jaws dropped in shock. If anything was going to set Diana off, that was it. Anger boiled through her veins as she was about to go and break him in half. Colby crossed his arms over his chest, unfazed by Diana's obvious anger "Nightwing just told you why I didn't engage them until I did." The words stopped Diana in her tracks as she realized that he was right.

Diana's anger quickly faded away as confusion took over her brain. "_What does he mean? Did Bruce plan it this way?_" She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure before thinking logically. "No one knew you were there..." Diana took Colby's irresponsiveness to her obvious observation as a sign of him indicating to her that she was on the right path. "Except Bruce…" Again, no reaction. "But how did he know you were there? Bruce said even he can't detect your presence… unless you made him aware that you were there."

"Bruce and I know how each other work, making verbal communication unnecessary." Colby stated flatly.

Trying to think like Bruce, Diana continued to reason out what exactly happened at the courtyard. "He somehow told you to sit back and wait for the perfect time to strike. But when did he know you were there?"

"Right before Nightwing and Robin were resurrected." Colby said as things began to become clearer for Diana.

"You needed the bow and arrows… so you waited to get them before making your move to strike." Diana looked at Colby as he didn't stop her from continuing to think out loud. "…He wanted to be absolutely sure that your attack would take them down. Wait until Ares was completely focused on Bruce and not his surroundings. That gave you the perfect opportunity to attack him."

"He is still a God, Wonder Woman… Taking him head on would be foolish, I know my limits." Colby was starting to be impressed by Diana's intuition as the tension between them steadily dropped.

Diana smiled "I told you before to call me Diana." It still amazed her that Bruce could think of all of this in such a little amount of time while engaged in a fight for his life, and be able to communicate it to Colby without saying a word or expose his presence. Diana placed her hands on her hips as she raised her eyebrow. "So how long does it take to learn how to develop this nonverbal communication and to have Bruce be unaware of your presence?"

Colby smirked. "Become Bruce's equal first… then we'll talk."

"I'm a quick learner, that shouldn't take too long." Diana smiled at the thought of being better than Bruce. Then an idea popped into her head. "Hey, why don't you join The Justice League? I know you would easily make it in with all of our recommendations."

Colby shook his head. "No thanks, I rather do things my way… I'm not much of a people person."

Diana laughed. "Says the guy who just took orders from Batman. You don't look like much of a loner to me… especially with that beautiful magician by your side." She tilted her head towards Zatanna.

"HEY! We want our details!" Barbra pushed Dick aside as she rolled right up to Zatanna with a grin on her face.

"Yea Colby… how did you sweep Zee off her feet?" Dinah grinned knowing that he hated being put on the spot.

Colby glared at Dinah before putting his mask back on and headed towards the training area. Cassandra quickly jumped off the computer console to go train with him. She never passes up an opportunity to train, especially to train with the best in the world. All the girls smirked at each other as they watched Ghost walk away.

"Well… at least that part of him hasn't changed." Dinah shook her head smiling. "I hate that mask of his… he's never any fun when it's on."

"Train, eat, train some more, sleep, train some more… then go to work. That's practically all he does when he's not with me." Zatanna winked at Dinah with a smirk on her face.

"Mistress Diana, Master Bruce will be just fine." Everyone quickly snapped their heads in Alfred's direction in relief. "The injuries are severe but not anything I believe he cannot overcome. He will require a lengthy rest… which I believe will require your area of expertise in convincing him to stay out of trouble." Alfred smirked as Diana smiled.

"Thank you Alfred. He's not going anywhere… not under my watch." Diana gently picked up Bruce and headed up to the mansion.

Diana gently placed Bruce on the bed as she watched him, looking at his beaten and battered body. It had been a while since Bruce was beaten so badly. All of her horribly painful memories of him coming home inches away from death poured back into her head. She wiped away the tears that were trickling down her face as she watched the man she loved more than anything struggling just to breathe. She quickly changed into her nightgown and carefully slid underneath the covers, lying as close to Bruce as possible while making sure not to aggravate his discomfort any further. Lying on her side with her head resting on her pillow, Diana faced him as her hand carefully reached over and held his. As his grip tightened, tears of joy and sorrow continued to flow down her face. His grip told her that he was going to be alright, but that didn't stop the deep pain within her heart knowing that he was in his current condition because of her.

"Princess…" Bruce said weakly between coughs. He tried to move his head to look at Diana, but didn't even have the strength to open his eyes.

Diana squeezed Bruce's hand, matching his grip. "I'm so sorry Bruce… it's all my fault…"

"You can't… get rid of me… that easily…" Bruce smiled as he held back the pain he felt from speaking.

"Bruce… I… I've put you through an unimaginable amount of pain and suffering… I…" Diana's emotions were getting the best of her, she couldn't finish before Bruce started speaking again.

"No… you… you have no reason to be sorry… You saved me… saved me from myself… Don't ever tell yourself any different… You're worth it… we are worth it… wouldn't trade us for anything… I need you… I love you too damn much." The pain was becoming too much to allow Bruce to speak and breathe at the same time.

The pain in Diana's heart quickly subsided when Bruce's words reached her ears. Diana couldn't help but smile back after hearing him say those words, reminding her of the special bond they both shared. "You're my whole world too Bruce." Diana gently kissed him as she carefully cuddled up to Bruce, holding him in her arms.

The rest of the batclan gathered around the backup computer, filling each other in on what happened in the last few days. Dick looked at the others before stopping at Tim with a smirk. "You know… I never thought that we'd have to take care of the old man again."

"Us take care of him?" Tim smirked back as he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "He would rather die than have us take care of him." Everyone laughed at just how close to the truth it really was.

Donna couldn't help but grin. "That shouldn't be too hard… especially since it's my sister's job to take care of him."

"If there's anyone more stubborn than Bruce, it's got to be Diana." Zatanna twirled her cane as she looked back at steps leading up to the mansion.

"Yea Dick, I'm pretty sure she can take care of him better than all of us combined." Helena elbowed Dinah in the arm with a smirk as the bat-signal alerting system suddenly went off in the cave.

Dick stared at the screen before turning to the batclan. "Time to go back to work."

Dinah scratched her head while raising an eyebrow. "What? But Bruce just beat the crap out of everyone. There's no one left to fight."

"There's always someone left to fight." Barbra began working on the computer as she put her headset on. "Crime never takes a break, and neither will we." The batclan made their way back out into the darkened night of Gotham to stop whatever and whoever awaited them this time.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. I was watching the movie Ocean's Eleven before I wrote the last few chapters and it kind of inspired me to write out the action scenes and then explain Batman's plan afterwards. Hopefully it came out well. Let me know what you think. I should have the epilogue up soon.

I've also been inspired by The Dark Knight Rises trilogy to make a third book to complete my story too. I have a pretty good idea on how I would like my trilogy to end, and should have a little teaser summary for you guys when I post the epilogue for this book. I can tell you now that it will definitely push Batman's powers to the extreme!


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Diana smirked to herself as she looked at the grandfather clock. It slid open, revealing the path to the batcave as it usually does when manipulated correctly. She saw him sitting in his usual chair staring attentively into the computer screen as she floated down the stairway. He was slouching back with his right elbow on the armrest while his right hand was scratching his beard. It had been three days since he last shaved. Three days since he last left the cave.

Diana hummed as she sat on his lap while gently taking his cowl off. "I go and visit the league for three days only to come back to see that you haven't even moved out of this chair." Bruce took a breath as he finally broke his stare at the screen to look into her beautiful pearl eyes. He sat up, allowing Diana to curl up comfortably in his lap. "Would you like to know how my day went?"

Bruce continued to slowly type on the keyboard while holding Diana. "You woke up in your quarters, had breakfast with Shayera and Donna, visited with the rest of the founding members like you usually do, had lunch with Zatanna, talked about me… obviously… then went shopping with the girls before coming here."

"Still checking up on me I see…" Diana laughed while playing with her wedding ring.

Bruce smirked. "As often as you check up on me Princess."

"You know… you're not the only person Zee and I talk about anymore." Diana tilted her head as she smiled while touching his stubby beard. "You need to shave… Guess where we're going tonight."

"The Gotham city orphanage fund raiser that you and Zatanna forced both Colby and I to agree to a week ago." Bruce said as he continued to focus on his work. He felt Diana's soft fingers gently massaging the back of his neck as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I have to find him Princess… it's been four months since we last saw him. I know he's still alive somewhere or I would have found his body by now."

"I know Bruce… I know..." Diana watched Bruce look over to the Robin suit in the display case. "You'll find him. I know you will." She cupped his cheek with her hand and turned his face to look at her. "Everything will work out. After everything that has happened to us, and with everything we've had to overcome, I believe it now more than ever." Diana smiled warmly as she traced his jaw line with her fingers. Bruce stared into her bright pearly blue eyes before nodding. Something about Diana's little speeches about her faith or love for him always seemed to reenergize him. Bruce started to reach for the computer when Diana quickly shifted to block him off. "YOU are going Bruce..."

Bruce watched Diana grab his hand and interlock his fingers with hers. "But…"

"Gotham is completely covered." Diana quickly cut Bruce off as she used her free hand to pull him closer to her. "Barbra and Dick are back from their honeymoon. Dick is patrolling with Tim and Cassandra Barb is back in the clock tower overseeing them and the Birds." Diana grinned as she rested her forehead on his and stared into his eyes. "You're mine tonight, and I won't be denied."

"Oh really?" Bruce flashed a mischievous smirk.

Knowing exactly what he was thinking, Diana shook her head as she playfully poked him in the chest with her finger. "YOU… you're going to be on your best behavior tonight." Bruce raised his eyebrow innocently as he held the hand that she used to poke him with. Diana rolled her eyes before glaring back at him. "Understood?"

"Yes Princess…" Bruce kissed her before making their way back up to the mansion.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hi guys! I just want to say thanks for the support. I thought I'd leave this epilogue with a warm heart-felt ending and leave the whereabouts of Jason and the conditions of the notorious inmates of Arkham Asylum in the next book.

I wrote and posted the first chapter of the concluding book to this trilogy, "Legacies" and I hope you enjoy it! Here's the summary:

Sequel to "Ties that Bond" and the final part to my trilogy. The invasion of Earth has begun. Do Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Justice League have what it takes to finally put a stop to this evil dictator's reign of terror?

For those of you who really want to see Batman use his powers to their fullest, this is it! If you want to know who the main antagonist is in the next book, I'll give you a hint. Remember when I said that my stories take place in the Justice League animated universe? You do? Great!


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